Review: Dvořák&Suk Recording in The Strad (UK)

A splendid combination of purity and sweeping, Heifetz-like intensity

The Strad | By Julian Haylock, 16. November 2018

Dvořák’s sole Violin Concerto is not among his most free-flowingly spontaneous scores. It took him four years (on and off) to complete, by which time the intended dedicatee Joseph Joachim had grown tired of the project and, despite having already advised on several changes, was still unhappy about what he considered the terse bridge between the first and second movements and over-repetitious finale.

Only comparatively recently has it become virtually standard repertoire, yet is remains a problematic work requiring sensitive and impassioned advocacy to sound its best. This it receives in spades from Eldbjørg Hemsing, who sustains high standards of intonational purity and beguiling tonal lustre throughout even most awkward of passages. She also shapes phrases with a chamber-scale dynamic suppleness, in contrast to the majority of recorded players, whose tendency towards special pleading often leads to over-projection.

However, the star turn here is the Suk Fantasy, which sounds (no bad thing) like an evacuee soundtrack from the Golden Age of Hollywood, with Hemsing hurling herself into the fray with an almost Heifetz-like intensity and swashbuckling bravado. Alan Buribayev and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra provide sterling support and the commendably natural recording opens out seductively when the SACD-surround track is activated.

Review: Dvořák & Suk Recording in Concerti (DE)

Effortless Intensity

Eckhard Weber | Concerti | 8. November 2018

She practically grew up with this work, she says. Indeed, young violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing feels noticeably at home in Dvořák’s Violin Concerto. The way she makes her instrument sing with an amazingly nuanced and beguiling tone full of vibrancy has compelling intensity. Nothing sounds laboured here, everything seems to happen spontaneously in this music. The Antwerp Symphony Orchestra under Alan Buribayev is extremely present and sensitive in this interaction and unfolds a tremendously broad spectrum of colours. The folkloristically inspired finale of the Violin Concerto impresses with light-footed verve and shimmering airiness. A new benchmark recording has been achieved here in every respect. The longingly agitated modernity of the fantasy of Dvořák’s pupil and son-in-law Josef Suk with its subtle shades and surprising changes additionally shows the great potential of Hemsing and her colllaborators.