Violinist Gil Shaham is quite a familiar figure on the American scene, so it may be a surprise to find that he apparently never recorded Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, prior to this release. He has recorded the Brahms Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77, before, and it is significant that his reading of that work is less unorthodox than that of the Beethoven, although it's solid in every way. However, it is the Beethoven concerto that really draws the ear here. It's hard to say whether the conception of the ...
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Violinist Gil Shaham is quite a familiar figure on the American scene, so it may be a surprise to find that he apparently never recorded Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, prior to this release. He has recorded the Brahms Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77, before, and it is significant that his reading of that work is less unorthodox than that of the Beethoven, although it's solid in every way. However, it is the Beethoven concerto that really draws the ear here. It's hard to say whether the conception of the work is Shaham's, or whether the interpretation is the result of a lively dialogue between the violinist and the orchestra The Knights, and its conductor, Eric Jacobsen, but then, it doesn't really matter. Jacobsen takes all three movements at an unusually fast clip that would be problematic if it were not answered with great intelligence by Shaham, who takes his time, introduces deliberate passages, and altogether redefines the relationship between soloist and orchestra in the work;...
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