Bruch - Violin Concerto 1 [Jansen/Chailly-Gewandhausorchester]This is the first time in playing this disc, i bought this somewhat on the strength of listening to the Bruch Viola Romance on YouTube [starts at 3:20], a beautiful piece, reminiscent of his Scottish Fantasy, but Bruch's Violin Concerto is an evergreen, everytime i listen to it i'm thrilled, and my heart melts in the slow movement, it's the usual coupling of these two Concertos, but made all the more desirable by the Viola piece.
Janine Jansen is 33, born in the Netherlands, she has recorded the major violin repertoire, the visuals for this are quite nice, showing Jansen on the front cover, holding what actually could be a viola, she made this recording in 2006, which actually were live recordings, but i never knew until i had finished listening.
Again it's that breathtaking central movement that has my heart in a flutter, it has a gorgeous tune, and it's the violin that starts us straight into that tune, and the violin weaves a magical variation of the tune [0:53-1:30], Jansen sends us into rapturous delights with some of her beautiful playing at times [3:16+ & 3:28+], especially when she travels up into treble heaven, there's a sheer innocence about the music, and there's delicate passages of breathtaking beauty [4:31-5:08], as well as build ups to more impassioned and unbuttoned lyricism [5:08-5:31], and it's in the red blooded forte passages you feel a sense of true power [5:31-6:02], right at the end, there's a slowing and dropping to a whisper, and out of the quiet comes something so innocent [7:19-8:21], and in there there's this climatic singing of pure sweetness [7:35-8:01], going right up into treble heaven, what a way to end a movement!.
Here's Janine Jansen playing the second movement on YouTube.
