“My Violin Concerto came about after several collaborations with Malin Broman and many years of gestation. We first worked together with Malin’s piano trio, the Kungsbacka Trio, but I also had the chance to work with the orchestra, conducted by Daniel Harding with Malin leading, in 2010.
I was immediately struck by the ferocity, power, and passion in her playing. At times, she is able to play with a sort of wild abandon but also with great tenderness, sensitivity and with many different colours. I knew when we started talking about the piece some years back, that I wanted to highlight and showcase these striking, opposing qualities. Violent, virtuosic music covering the whole range of the violin is contrasted with more delicate and reflective filigree material that features oscillating natural harmonic passages and searching melodies.
Towards the beginning of the writing process, I sent Malin various fragments of material and many of these are used in the concerto. These initial sketches actually became the basis for the piece’s central section and everything else sprang from this. In one continuous movement, the piece falls into three main sections but features extensive dreamlike interlinking passages that connect them.”
– Helen Grime, composer
Malin Broman, violin
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Daniel Harding, conductor
Tracklist
Please note that the below previews are loaded as 44.1 kHz / 16 bit.Total time: 00:22:40
Additional information
| Label | |
|---|---|
| SKU | 970867 |
| Qualities | DSD 512 fs, DSD 256 fs, DSD 128 fs, DSD 64 fs, DXD 24 Bit, WAV 96 kHz, FLAC 192 kHz |
| Channels | |
| Artists | |
| Composers | |
| Genres | |
| Original Recording Format | |
| Recording Location | Berwaldhallen, Stockholm |
| Mixing | Jens Braun |
| Mastering | Jens Braun |
| Executive Producer | Lars Hannibal |
| Release Date | January 16, 2026 |
Press reviews
Fanfare
The Concerto is formed of a continuous movement, divided into three main sections with interlinking passages of strikingly fantastical music between them. Grime often uses the orchestra to expand the solo part to create what she has described as a “three-dimensional effect” and the feel at times is rather like high-powered chamber music. The first movement immediately compels the listener’s attention with a series of lightening interjections between orchestra and soloist which is not a dialog exactly, more an exchange of unadapted statements: the woodwind in triplets and quintuplets, the violin “answering” in five bar sets of accented triplets. The music develops and becomes more complicated until Broman delivers a cadenza, playing at triple forte with breathtaking power, only for the orchestra to intervene after six bars. These interactions are excitedly repeated until it feels the violin has worn the orchestra down. The orchestral speed drops and it becomes quiet, “very still” as the score directs, whilst the cadenza continues at the section’s initial speed. It’s ingenious, highly effective writing, brilliantly realized here by Broman and the Swedish Radio Orchestra under Daniel Harding’s expert direction.
Fanfare
There is no defined end in the traditional sense; and so the close is a massive challenge to he soloist/conductor bond, here absolutely impeccable. It is remarkable to think this is a live performance; such is he accuracy; and yet we hear that concert hall element in the undeniable frisson throughout.
I honestly believe this is one of the major violin concertos of our time. How lucky we are to have Helen Grime to create this; and how lucky she, and we, are to have such world-class interpreters. Unmissable.
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