Customer Reviews

Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1; Janacek: Violin Concerto

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Yes, buy this, especially for the Janacek. Terrific piece and terrific playing by Ms. Skride. The Shostakovich, live, is very good too! I heard her recently with New Jersey Symphony, (I've heard her before in recital) in the Shostakovich violin concerto number 2, and her playing of the cadenza knocked me out. Skride is better than Hahn, or Fischer or Josewitcz, but doesn't have the press they do. Dare I say it, but she is as good as my favorite Janine Jansen! I haven't heard Batiashvili live, next week I will, so I don't know how I will rate her....but after all is said and done, the Mutter Of Us All still rules women violinists!

Prepare for another exceptional young violinist in the beautiful Latvian Baiba Skride. She seems to have what it takes to make audiences sit up and listen. Her tone is big and warm and yet supple enough to tackle the tricky brittle passages as thee appear - effortlessly. In the Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 she maintains a gorgeous lyrical sound and sweeps through the work with finesse and thoughtful interpretive ideas. But she also never veers away from the score to superimpose herself on the piece, as so many others are wont to do. This is splendid playing.

The Janácek work is stunningly beautiful, less a concerto than a rhapsody of themes from his opera 'From the House of the Dead'. The orchestration is thick and gorgeous and the solo line is fiendishly difficult, but Skride tosses is off with aplomb and makes us want to hear more - in fact, she has several recordings for our pleasure already! It makes a fine pairing with the Shostakovich and Skride and her collaborators (Marek Janowski and the Berlin Radio Symphony on the Janácek and Mikko Franck and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra on the Shostakovich. Watch this regal young virtuosa rise. Grady Harp, August 10