Brahms & Busoni: Violin Concertos (Chandos)

"Brahms and Busoni are a pairing less likely than, say, Brahms and Liszt. Yet here is a coupling of Violin Concertos that invites some considerations of similarities. The common protagonist is the remarkable Italian-born violinist Francesca Dego, whose performances with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Dalia Stasevska are ravishingly pure, precise and purposeful, with a radiance and opulent virtuosity that embraces an overall Romantic ethos.

If anything, the younger Busoni’s concerto inhabits a more flamboyant post-Lisztian world, freely bound and thematically impetuous, with a slow movement oozing unbound passion and a finale that verges on showtime. Dego throws herself fully into it, as she does the Brahms, though in the latter with more poetically manicured sheen. Stasevska preempts that in the distinctive finesse of her Brahms opening. The real magic lies in performances that delight in the unexpected complementarity of two distinctive musical minds."

The Scotsman - ☆☆☆☆☆
(February 2024)