Brahms & Busoni: Violin Concertos

The celebrated violinist Francesca Dego is joined by the

BBC Symphony Orchestra and her regular collaborator

Dalia Stasevska for this recording of the violin concertos

by Brahms and Busoni. A cornerstone of the repertoire,

Brahms's Concerto dates from 1878, a year after the

Second Symphony, and was composed for (and

dedicated to) the virtuoso Joseph Joachim. The

Concerto takes the standard three-movement form,

and as in Beethoven's Concerto (considered by many as

Brahms's inspiration for the work) the first movement is

significant in it's length and it's complexity. Busoni's

Violin Concerto in it's turn is inspired by both Brahms

and Beethoven, and like both previous works it is in the

key of D major. Premièred in Berlin in 1897 by the

Dutch violinist Henri Petri, the Concerto is dazzlingly

virtuosic. Francesca Dego writes: 'To be able to record

Brahms's Violin Concerto is a dream and a milestone for

every violinist and I feel that with "my" Brahms I do not

want to compete with the many gorgeous versions out

there but instead to declare my own love and history

with my favourite violin concerto. Busoni's Concerto,

however, is a rarely performed work, brought to the

studio only a handful of times. It represents a different

kind of responsibility, one that pushed me to want to

rediscover every detail of this music as if it had never

been played before.'