Written to Thrill A reimagining for our time of the late-Romantic violin concerto
Wolfgang David: intimately involved in Gompper’s concerto
Laurence Vittes
On this new release, Gompper and the performers engage the listener with gratifying musical explorations and discoveries in all the component aspects of musical creation: rhythm, colour, melody.
The big three-movement Violin Concerto, beginning under a haunted veil as if it were the Sibelius Concerto, was written over a four-year period beginning in 2005 with Wolfgang David, a working relationship as close and meaningful as Brahms had with Joachim.
„Before each of the performances,“ the composer writes in the booklet-notes, „Wolfgang David and I reconsidered every note, phrase and section.“ The careful plotting results in an entirely 21st-century reconsideration of the late-Romantic violin concerto, rich in emotional impact, spectacular in instrumental content and written to thrill; indeed, the concluding Presto would bring any audience cheering to its feet.
The intense precision and complicity with which Siffert and the Royal Philharmonic play Gompper’s music has been captured in a recording of glowing audiophile depth, as if it were in 3D.