Lea Birringer: Järnefelt, Sibelius, Szymanowski

The Strad Issue: June 2025

Description: An unusual concerto coupling, with Szymanowski coming out on top

Musicians: Lea Birringer (violin) Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie/Benjamin Shwartz

Works: Järnefelt: Berceuse. Sibelius: Violin Concerto. Szymanowski: Violin Concerto no.2

Catalogue number: RUBICON RCD1193

Lea Birringer opens the Sibelius Concerto with a musing, gentle sensibility and builds in momentum to the end of the first paragraph. This is a broad reading, evident from the orchestral interlude and again when she returns in the dreamy Largamente, though contrast comes in the tutti Allegro molto, with its surging energy. In the cadenza Birringer is again thoughtful and spacious, and there is muscular playing in the drive to the end.

After a great, expressive soliloquy at the beginning of the second movement she develops steadily to the climax. The finale is energetic and presses forward to create a suitably dramatic finish.

After Järnefelt’s Berceuse, a short, affecting piece nicely shaped, there is an energy and drama in Szymanowski’s Second Violin Concerto that was somehow missing in the Sibelius. Here, Birringer is by turns pacey and sensuous, her cadenza fluent, her playing sometimes biting, and she and her colleagues head compulsively into the vehemently jaunty Allegramente movement. After the energetic opening tutti Birringer is coquettish and nimble. She is always splendid, but the somewhat restricted sound doesn’t always do her justice. Wind solos tend to get lost in the mix, although the horns sometimes emerge splendidly.

TIM HOMFRAY