Sibelius - Violin Concerto [Josefowicz/ Marriner-Academy Of Saint Martin In The Fields]At 17 years old [she's now 32], this in one sense is a youthful passionate reading of the Sibelius Concerto, but don't let a teenager put you off from listening to this, as it's also a mature and assured reading.
The opening of the first movement is full of mystery, the undulating strings at the start [0:00-0:08], sound like mists clearing and the violin comes in clear and pure [0:08-1:07], what a wonderfully atmospheric opener for a Violin Concerto, and what a great basis to build something on, one thing i notice about this movement, is how much a vehicle it is for solo expression, lots of cadenza like passages, the Orchestra takes a back seat often, it's orchestrally sparse, a nice busy orchestral passage comes up just after 5 minutes [5:23-6:05], during one of these violin 'cadenzas', the violin and bassoon do a short duet [9:07-9:23], ok not a duet as such, the violin soloing, and the bassoon colouring things in the background, i like touches like this, another forte passage from the orchestra [11:23-11:52], which subsides, and out of this comes a solo oboe [11:52-12:09], a lovely pleading tune, and what a finale ending! [13:59-15:16], full of bravura and exciting virtuosity, from both soloist and orchestra.
Here's Leila Josefowicz playing the First movement on YouTube.
