Violin Concertos 1 & 2

Love him or hate him, Paganini always makes an impression. Koelman plays boldly, strongly, somewhat dashingly, and he maintains strong forward propulsion giving the music good continuity. Some other performances lose this continuity and forward motion as they emphasize the variety of tones and expression that Paganini's music quite properly contains. Koelman is not elegant as is Hilary Hahn, but his performances have a strength and movement to them that I very much admire.

De Vreind's orchestral leadership provides and excellent partnership to Koelman. De Vriend comes with a background in music of the baroque and one might think this places him at some disadvantage in these works. To the contrary in my opinion. I find De Vriend's lighter, more incisive, tendencies to be exactly what makes this performance more enjoyable for me than many others. Gone is the strong vibrato baggage, gone is the mooning romanticism. Instead one has a rather delightful spring and propulsion to the music. In any event, Koelman and De Vriend seem well matched in their outlook on the performance choices for this music; there is synergy not tension.

Bert van der Wolf's recording is rich, expansive and airy, nicely capturing the natural reverberation of the hall while providing excellent balance and detail of soloist and orchestra. Another extremely well recorded outing, as we've come to expect.