Strauss / Bartók: Violin Concertos

“The only violin concerto Richard Strauss composed when he was just 18 years old is a beautiful, energetic, and brilliantly structured work that already displays numerous allusions and characteristics of his later style,” says Alena Baeva. With her long-time musical companion Paavo Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, she has found the ideal partners to record this relatively rarely performed concerto as well as another early masterpiece: Bartók’s First Violin Concerto, which is essentially a love letter to the violinist Stefi Geyer, who was nine years younger than him. The “Stefi theme” (D – F♯ – A – C♯) forms the basis of the first movement… but she never played it, as she had broken up with him just a few days before he finished the concerto… Bartók’s First Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra rounds off this program. Just a few days after the premiere, the composer traveled to Bremen for his next concert in the Glockensaal, where this recording was made 94 years later.