Isabelle van Keulen turns a taut and lean rendition of Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Her approach is refreshingly classical, with clear, evenly-shaped phrases and generally quick tempos. This is in marked contrast to Anne-Sophie Mutter’s passion-drenched performance with Herbert von Karajan, who with his Berlin Philharmonic produces ravishing sounds for the accompaniment. Cho-Liang Lin displays a warmer, more deeply-felt romanticism in his beautifully lyric performance with Leonard Slatkin leading a robust Chicago Symphony. We get no such luxurious sounds from Gilbert Varga and the Bamberg Symphony, though the orchestra does match van Keulen’s refined fire with its own flowing pace and lightness of touch, which ultimately makes for a highly compelling performance.
Bruch was an admitted reactionary when it came to musical taste, dismissing the work of Liszt, Wagner, and later Richard Strauss. So it should come as no surprise that his Violin Concerto No. 3, composed some 23 years later than No. 1, shows little appreciable stylistic advance. He certainly did refine his craft–the quality of his orchestration and harmonic and thematic construction is unassailable–but the results just aren’t all that interesting. The concerto’s first movement centers on two main themes, neither of which stays in your head the way those from Concerto No. 1 do. A charming slow movement and a vibrant finale complete the usual package. Van Keulen draws upon her considerable talent, experience, and professionalism to find a masterpiece where one does not exist, and to her credit she does make listening to this work a pleasing experience, especially in her feisty reading of the finale. Koch’s recording, aside from the over-prominent focus on the solo violin, makes a generally fine impression.
