Brahms: Violin Concerto [Audio CD] Chung; Rattle; Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; Brahms, Johannes and Rattle, Simon - Very Good

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Amazon.ca If the Vienna Philharmonic wasn't too proud to give itself a chief conductor it would probably have snapped up Simon Rattle before Berlin did; and the peculiar depth of relationship it enjoys with him is clear from these recordings, which were both made after acclaimed (and meticulously prepared) public performances in late 2000. The VPO, of course, is steeped in Beethoven tradition from Furtwängler to Carlos Kleiber whose mid-1970s DG recording stands in a class of its own among all non-period versions; and you might wonder how any latter-day conductor could mould the cushioned Vienna sound into something distinctively his own. But Rattle uses the new Bärenreiter edition of the score (already heard on disc in David Zinman's superb Zurich Tonhalle recording for BMG) and it does make a difference. The result is a handsome fusion of old-time grandeur with new-style period consciousness, Rattle's speeds managing to be bracing without passing into overdrive. And he's not scared of sheer, sumptuous elegance--as you can hear from the accompanying Violin Concerto: a magnificently full performance, worthy of comparison with the best recent recordings (Joshua Bell on Decca chief among them) and proof that Kyung Wha Chung is once again (after a period of doubt) a personality of first-rank stature among virtuoso violinists. --Michael White

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