Sibelius Violin Concerto, Nielsen Violin Concerto : Johan Dalene(Vn)John Storgards / Royal Stockholm Philharmonic (Hybrid)

Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius, alongside Grieg the two giants in Nordic classical music, were both born in 1865. Both also received their first musical training on the violin, earning valuable insights when it came to writing for the instrument. Their respective violin concertos were composed some six years apart Sibelius in 1904-05 and Nielsens in 1911 and belong to the most performed works of either composer. They are nevertheless as different from each other as are the artistic temperaments of their makers. While retaining the traditional three-movement concerto form, Sibelius composed something closer to a Late-Romantic orchestral tone poem giving the orchestra unusual prominence. Nielsen on the other hand opted for an unconventional form, reminiscent of the Baroque concerto grosso: the spiky, neoclassical work is nominally in two movements, but with each movement having a slow and a fast section. These works are here performed by Johan Dalene, the Swedish-Norwegian winner of the 2019 Nielsen Competition. The present disc is the 21 year old violinists third release on BIS, following a recording of the Tchaikovsky Concerto described as one of the finest violin dbuts of the last decade in BBC Music Magazine, and an all-Nordic violin-and-piano recital awarded distinctions such as Diapason dor and Gramophones Editors Choice. Dalene is given the expert support of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor John Storgrds, incidentally a violin soloist in his own right.