A powerful new take on a concerto with a vexed history
The Strad Issue: May 2026
Description: A powerful new take on a concerto with a vexed history
Musicians: Midori (violin) Őzgűr Aydin (piano) Festival Strings Lucerne/Daniel Dodds
Works: R. Schumann: Violin Concerto; Five Pieces in Folk Style op.102; Three Romances op. 94. C. Schumann: Three Romances op.22
Catalogue number: PENTATONE PTC5187496
Robert Schumann’s Violin Concerto, completed in the autumn of 1853, was initially admired by Clara Schumann and its dedicatee Joseph Joachim. But after Robert’s death they suppressed the work, unpremiered, having decided in hindsight that its originality was a sign of mental weakness.
Step forward Midori, with her master’s degree in psychology, for a programme that offers a feast of musicological-psychological musings if you’re minded to compare the works’ respective dates and expressive modes.
So we have Clara’s own 1853 work for Joachim – the much more tenderly uncomplicated Three Romances – plus highly effective violin transcriptions of intimate 1849 chamber works of Robert’s – his Three Romances for oboe and Five Pieces in Folk Style for cello.
This concerto performance is a cracker. The first movement sports an exhilaratingly steely sound from everyone, capturing Schumann’s contrasts between sinewy momentum and more introspective moments; throughout, the recording captures both the fuller textures and solo writing.
The long-drawn slow movement is gloriously poised, with Midori bringing alive its intimate beauty and the orchestra offering sophisticated rubato. The finale, meanwhile, has plenty of verve.
In the chamber pieces, highlights include pianist Őzgűr Aydin’s duetting in the third of Robert’s Romances, and Midori’s soberly introspective take on Clara’s first.
What lingers in the mind is the humanity with which Midori approaches each of these pieces in a notable debut for Pentatone.
CHARLOTTE GARDNER
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