Nicola Benedetti, Aurora Orchestra, Nicholas Collon - Beethoven: Violin Concerto
(Decca Records, 2024)
Nicola Benedetti, despite being a marquee violinist with a high profile, has got some impressive chops, which she has amply showed on her previous recordings, Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No. 1 (Deutsche Grammophon, 2005), Fantasie (Decca Records, 2009), Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No.1; Glazunov: Violin Concerto (Decca, 2016) Marsalis: Violin Concerto; Fiddle Dance Suite (Decca, 2019), and Baroque (Decca Records, 2021).
Benedetti has turned her attention to the classical cornerstone of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61. She performs with the Aurora Orchestra under the direction of Nicholas Collon. It is within recent memory (pre-COVID) that Benedetti performed Beethoven’s Concerto on gut strings with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The violinist reflects that experience in her playing here with a modern instrument ensemble best known for performing concerts from memory. These two aspects bring a certain high wire character to the overall performance.
Collon and the Aurora Orchestra provide a muscularity to the performance that melds well with Benedetti’s own sense of tonal physicality. Soloist and orchestra are respectful of one another with that respect being clear in the consistent pacing of the performance. The sonics are superb, where Benedetti’s tone is not attenuated by the orchestra’s ebullient power. Benedetti throws sparks herself in all the right places, making this a perfectly enjoyable performance.
