Sibelius & Barber: Violin Concertos

Renaud Capuçon adds two more great violin concertos from the first half of the 20th century to his discography: the Sibelius and Barber, recorded with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and conductor Daniel Harding. Both works – the Sibelius completed in 1905 and the Barber in 1949 – offer intense, expansive lyricism in their first and second movements and a third movement that bursts with energy. Capuçon’s interpretations now join his other Erato recordings of concertos from the era where late-Romanticism meets Modernism – by Elgar, Korngold and Bartók. In late 2023, when Renaud Capuçon performed the Barber concerto in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Guardian wrote: “Renaud Capuçon proved himself a five-star successor to [Isaac] Stern. Capuçon had all the expressive tonal warmth and legato for the first two movements and all the brilliantly fast-fingered technique required for the hair-raising presto finale," while Seen and Heard International, describing Capuçon as “a real master of his instrument”, concluded after the performance that “Renaud Capuçon is one of the finest living violinists, of that there can be little doubt.”