Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D Minor – Bruch: Scottish Fantasy
Sibelius: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor, Op. 47
Bruch: Scottish Fantasy, Op. 46
Zubin Mehta, conductor
Israel Philharmonic
“Commanding performances of both works, at once pure in tone and warmly expressive. […] It is a tribute to Midori’s mastery that her playing has all the precision one would expect in the studio, exceptionally clean and precise. Then there is the gain in tension one would expect in live performances, with the main lyrical themes of the first two movements of the Sibelius given rapt intensity and with the coda of the first movement as thrilling as I have known it. The finale is remarkable for the clean precision of her playing with detail sharply defined even in the heaviest bravura passages. [In the Bruch] there is a magical moment at the very end when … her final slow cadenza has an ethereal purity leading to a momentary reference back to the theme of the first movement; at a whispered pianissimo it is breathtaking.” Gramophone