Beginning with the historic version that the 15-year-old Yehudi Menuhin made with the composer himself conducting in 1931, the truly outstanding recordings of Elgar’s Violin Concerto can still be counted on the fingers of one hand. It’s a measure of the startling quality of this performance by the Norwegian Vilde Frang with Robin Ticciati and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin that it unquestionably deserves a place among that elite.
The tone for Frang’s performance is set at the very start of the concerto, before she has played a note. Ticciati propels the opening orchestral tutti with real urgency, immediately dispelling any idea that would emphasise the score’s dreamier aspects; when she enters, Frang’s muscularity confirms that approach.
Her playing has a thrilling authority and confidence in what is technically one of the most demanding concertos in the violin repertory, and it helps immeasurably that her tone is arrestingly warm and burnished. That enables her to bring a beguiling beauty to her unfolding of the slow movement, cushioned by the transparency of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester strings, though even there the energy propelling the upward leaps in the solo line underlines the urgency behind the whole performance. There’s no slackening in the finale either, which pivots about the huge, mysterious cadenza with its backdrop of thrumming strings; from first note to last Frang never puts a foot wrong.
The two miniatures added at the end of the disc – a violin-and-piano version of Elgar’s wartime Carissima, and The Gardens at Eastwell – A Late Summer Impression by William Lloyd Webber – provide a final reminder of the sheer beauty and poise of Frang’s playing. This quite exceptional performance of the concerto is, for me, the finest to appear since Nigel Kennedy’s 1984 recording.
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