TRACKLISTING
Beethoven: Concerto for Violin & Orchestra in D major, op.61
Mendelssohn: Concerto for Violin & Orchestra in E minor, op.64

ABOUT THIS SACD
As per other SACDs in the Decca/Philips catalogue, this release has the following features:

*It is a Hybrid Disc = SACD Surround, SACD Stereo and CD Stereo (ie, it will play on all CD-players and sticker will indicate this).

*A multi-channel DSD recording

This new album brings Viktoria Mullova together with John Eliot Gardiner and his Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique for a programme which couples two of the greatest violin concertos in the repertory: those by Beethoven and Mendelssohn.

Viktoria Mullova’s recent disc of Mozart Violin Concertos 1, 3 & 4 (470 292-2) has received much critical acclaim and also marked a radical departure in the use of gut strings on her violin.

Beethoven’s Violin Concerto is his only concerto for a solo string instrument and is one of the cornerstones of the violin repertory. It is conceived on a huge scale and must have presented an enormous challenge to the violinist who first performed the work on 23 December 1806, Franz Clement, who essentially had to play the work at sight.

Mendelssohn was a violinist himself and the E minor Concerto is an integral part of the violin repertory. The concerto was given its first performance on 13 March 1845 when Ferdinand David was soloist. Mendelssohn had agonised over minute details of the work with David yet the final result is one of a piece of seeming great spontaneity and youthful freshness. The concerto was immediately recognised as a masterpiece and has remained so ever since.