I had the main tune of this Concerto going round in my head ages after it finished, i can't quite decide if it's this Concerto, or the Sibelius, or Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole that i find the very best Violin Concerto of all, but this certainly wins for the sheer passion and tender pathos, and it was inspired to give us the other Bruch masterpiece as its companion, the underrated Scottish Fantasy.
Akiko Suwanai is Japanese, i can't believe she's now 40 years old, of course in this booklet photograph of 1996 when she recorded this work, she was only 24, but these Asians sure don't age like the rest of us, and the booklet photo [by Christian Steiner] is a nice tender portrait, she's very slim with waist length black hair, and an angelic face.
The whole of this Concerto was quite a revelation, Beethoven takes roughly 45 minutes to spin his Violin Concerto, Bruch takes almost half that [24 minutes here], and yet in my mind spins something much more substantial, the first movement sounded so sure and tremendous, and the second movement is so gut wrenching, but it was the third movement which really got to me, it's a sort of combination of the first two movements, it is played Allegro like the first movement, but episodes of pure tender power keep coming in, very reminiscent of the second movement, Suwanai plays with lovely virtuosity, and the the fortes by the orchestra are tremendous [1:12-1:37], the eruption of the first strong surge of pathos [2:10-2:27] is so gut wrenching, and Suwanai echoes that tune [2:27-2:52], but sounds in lots of ways like a viola, and the second pathos eruption is just as heart tugging [4:38-4:49], the 'finale' of sorts is a nice virtuoso culmination to the whole thing, a truly great Violin Concerto, Bruch really knows how to tug at your heartstrings, the whole movement is a real roller coaster ride.
Here's Suwanai playing the third movement on YouTube.
Here's Suwanai playing the third movement on YouTube.
