Richard Tognetti: Beethoven, Brahms

The Strad Issue: December 2025

Description: A great partnership is celebrated in two captivating live recordings

Musicians: Australian Chamber Orchestra/Richard Tognetti (violin)

Works: Beethoven: Violin Concerto. Brahms: Violin Concerto

Catalogue number: ABC Classics ABCL0129 (2 CDs)

This generous coupling celebrates not only the 50th anniversary of the Australian Chamber Orchestra but also Richard Tognetti’s remarkable 35 years as artistic director. A rapport that is so deeply baked in can only result in performances of uncanny sympathy between the ensemble and Tognetti as soloist, leading from the violin in the two great D major works that define the 19th-century fiddle concerto. You hear it in the unshakable co-ordination between all involved, even when Tognetti’s manipulations of pulse and dynamic are at their most individual.

Articulation and attack occasionally border on the brash: certainly nothing is smoothed over or prettified. Tognetti’s tone has grain and sinew, imparting a pleasing edge that is picked up by his energetic band, following and supporting with unstinting fervour. The performances are taken from concerts seven years apart and Tognetti is spotlit a little more in the Beethoven (2018) than in the Brahms (2025) – there are moments in, say, the former’s finale where it might have been beneficial to hear a little more of the bassoon’s tune than the fiddle’s merry dance around it, although it’s hardly a deal breaker.

Tognetti is never one to toe the line and his choice of cadenzas is particularly ear-catching. The Beethoven is graced with an ingenious mix of Vieuxtemps, Nováček, Kreisler, Auer and Laub, in a solo showcase (with timpani) stretching to a luxurious six and a half minutes. In the Brahms, Joachim is supplanted by Busoni (timpani again), Heermann and Auer. It’s a heady brew and one perhaps not ideal for everyday listening. But it’s impossible to ignore.

DAVID THREASHER