Renaud Capuçon spielt Glass' 1. Violinkonzert

A pulsating, rhythmically driving orchestral backdrop forms the foundation against which a delicately radiant violin part stands out. When Philip Glass composed his violin concerto in 1987, he was thinking of his late father, who admired the violin concertos of Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Brahms, and Mendelssohn. So he returned to tradition—to an expressive, late-Romantic style, to arpeggios reminiscent of Vivaldi, and to soaring cantilenas over a Baroque passacaglia bass line. The meditative yet energetic atmosphere makes the Violin Concerto one of his most popular works. The art of slow development and barely perceptible transitions had already shaped Anton Bruckner’s style. His Symphony in E-flat major begins evocatively, almost emblematically, with an otherworldly horn theme over a mystical string sound—a beginning that had a lasting influence on the understanding of “Romanticism” in music.

PHILIP GLASS
Violin Concerto No. 1
ANTON BRUCKNER
Symphony No. 4, “Romantic”

Conductor LAHAV SHANI
Violin: RENAUD CAPUÇON