Jaakko Kuusisto may be one of his generation’s leading violin
virtuosos but he features here as composer and conductor, leaving the
pyrotechnics to the phenomenally talented Elina Vähälä (aka Mrs Ralf
Gothóni). And what a show she puts on here, in two full-blooded
21st-century concertos of Romantic, or at least conventional, idiom,
rich in melody, orchestral texture and expressive purpose.
Corigliano’s Concerto will be familiar to many, having been both assembled from the music to Girard’s film The Red Violin
in 1997 and in part the progenitor to it. Corigliano pre-composed the
opening Chaconne as an independent work so that the actors had a piece
they could mime to in the film, but in 2003 added three further
movements, including a magical Pianissimo Scherzo, to make a
full-size concerto that his namesake father – former concertmaster of
the New York Philharmonic – would have liked to play. Vähälä’s vibrant
account is a match for Bell’s – and three minutes faster in the Chaconne
– and fleeter and more exciting throughout, with superior sound, than
Ludwig on Naxos. (In the Chaconne, Vähälä outpaces Chloë Hanslip, too,
but expressively matters are more even here.) Kuusisto’s own Concerto (2011) is a colourful and dramatic score, although he has confessed to
no extramusical inspiration. The original idea was for a concertante
work using unusual and electronic instruments but over time it
transformed into the present vivacious half-hour-long concerto of
relatively conventional stamp. The finale’s rhythmic drive and
alternating lyricism are immensely appealing. The disc opens with the
playful overture Leika (‘Child’s Play’, 2010 – not the similarly-named Soviet space dog). Excellent performances and sound. (Guy Rickards / Gramophone)
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