The only violin concerto written by Richard Strauss, at just 18 years old, is a beautiful, energetic, brilliantly structured work with so many clues and features of his later style., says Alena Baeva. With her long-standing collaborator Paavo Jarvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, she has found the ideal partners to record this relatively rarely performed concerto, as well as another early masterpiece, Bartok's First Violin Concerto, which is essentially a love letter to the violinist Stefi Geyer, nine years his junior. The 'Stefi theme' (D - F? - A - C?) forms the basis of the first movement but she never played it, as she broke up with him a few days before he finished his concerto... Bartok's First Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra rounds completes this programme. Just a few days after it's premiere, the composer travelled to Bremen for his next concert in the Glockensaal, where, 94 years later, this recording was made.
