There's something irresistible about May-December musical partnerships. Violinist Francesca Dego was in her early 30s when this album was released in 2021 (it was mostly made several years earlier), and veteran conductor Roger Norrington was an octogenarian. Even better, the two are closely attuned to their mutual goals in what is really a sterling example of concerto playing. Norrington contributes a booklet note to this Chandos release that is an admirable little manual for his methods. This is not a historical-instrument ...
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There's something irresistible about May-December musical partnerships. Violinist Francesca Dego was in her early 30s when this album was released in 2021 (it was mostly made several years earlier), and veteran conductor Roger Norrington was an octogenarian. Even better, the two are closely attuned to their mutual goals in what is really a sterling example of concerto playing. Norrington contributes a booklet note to this Chandos release that is an admirable little manual for his methods. This is not a historical-instrument performance, but many ideas from the historical performance movement are applied, and Norrington boils them down to six factors beginning with the letter S: Sources (the influence of Leopold Mozart's concerto on these works is noted), Size (the Royal Scottish National Orchestra is cut way down), Seating (the violins are split up, with the double basses between), Speed (the tempos are quick by modern standards), Sound (as usual with historical performances, vibrato is restricted),...
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