Beethoven - Violin Concerto [Znaider/ Mehta-The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra] Believe it or not, this is the first time that the Beethoven Concerto appears in my Blog, some people would say that this is the greatest violin concerto ever written, and even though i regard this Concerto highly, i find it far from the greatest, for me it's a bit of a tough listen, it's long and i seem to need to concentrate more, there's great architecture in there, especially the first movement, other Violin Concertos much more easily affect me, the Adagio of Bruch's Violin Concerto 1 melts my heart, the Intermezzo from Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole has exciting rhythms, the Bach Concertos are concise and extremely refreshing, by comparison Beethoven's Concerto is like an ocean liner!.
Nikolaj Znaider is actually Danish, with a Russian sounding name [i think one of his parents comes from a Polish background], he's now 35 years old, and he recorded this disc in 2005, i like the visuals that come with this disc, the front booklet [photo George Lange] is very nice, a well lit portrait, with strong light in the background, and the back inlay photo is good too.
The first movement is a mammoth 24+ minute slab,
Here's Anne Sophie Mutter playing the first movement on YouTube.
