Prokofiev Bruch Concertos pour violon Kleven Hagen Engeset - PSC1266 - Simax Classics

Guro made her debut concert performance with the Oslo Philharmonic only 17 years old. Her reflective and intuitive approach to music-making created great enthusiasm with Norway's leading orchestra, and Simax Classics is proud to release our first 'violinist concerto debut release' - ever. / True pilars in the concerto repertoire for this release, with the Bruch of course as the most well known. It was the first concerto the composer wrote for any instrument, completed in 1868 it was to remain his most famous piece. The soloist enters on a long, open G, the deepest note of the violin - an opening which is perhaps the most iconic in all the violin literature. There is nothing to hide behind : just the bow on the open string - directly to the heart of the performer. Guro grabs hold of the listener with her luminous timbre and she does not let go. It is interesting to note that that Guro is acutally playing the Bergonzi violin that used to belong to Fritz Kreisler; himself infamous for that very first note of this concerto. / More 'classic' in layout than his first concerto, the second violin concerto reflecs Prokofiev's mature style and actually was the last big scale work he wrote before returning to USSR in 1934. Prokofiev himself drew attention to the way thid concerto reflected his "nomadic" existence - the first theme was written in Paris, the slow movement in Voronezh, and the Concerto was completed on 16 August 1935 at Baku, on the Caspian Sea. Guro holds this concerto close to her heart, just listen to how she creates a positively elevated sensation in those long beatutiful lines of the second movement, doing justice to Prokofiev at his most lyrical and direct.