VFCO / GÁBOR TAKÁCS-NAGY / KRISTÓF BARÁTI

With Alexey Shor, the virtuoso violinist has not said his last word! With his style inspired by Mozart and Mendelssohn, the Ukrainian composer creates a Concerto of very balanced proportions in three movements, from an anguished opening Allegro carried by heady syncopations to the final Presto, where the use of brass and percussion opens up new musical horizons, closer to the music of the 19th century.

Paganini’s Second Concerto is not so far removed; the composer here finds a formal purity that eludes his other Concertos. The finale ‘La Campanella’ is aptly named after the little bell that marks the return of the main melody, whose presence culminates in a delightful exchange with the soloist. Kristóf Baráti, whose skill and theatricality no longer need proving, returns here to one of his hobby horses, which revealed him to the world twenty years ago.

Completing the “symphonic decade” that saw Brahms write his four Symphonies in the space of nine years, the Fourth Symphony culminates in his art of synthesis, from its tempestuous opening motif to the Phrygian horn call in the slow movement. This is an important work for the Verbier Festival Orchestra, which made its mark with this same symphony at the closing concert of the 2012 edition, then conducted by Manfred Honeck.