Colin’s Column, Colin Anderson

The ethereal opening of Sibelius’s Violin Concerto is well-managed, the balance between Fenella Humphreys and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales is equally judicious (woodwinds carry effortlessly) – courtesy of engineer Dave Rowell (Jan & Feb last year, BBC Hoddinott Hall) –

the music simmering with promise under George Vass’s direction.

Humphreys’s assumption of the solo part is as tender and confiding as it is impassioned and athletic…

…and with a charged and dynamic BBCNOW in full aural view, responding to an alert and sympathetic Vass, this is a commendable and recommendable new version of a much-loved work.

Maybe … not everyone will like the measured tempo for the Finale – although it respects ideally Sibelius’s ma non tanto marking and allows Vass to tease out detail sometimes obscured.

…