Nicola Benedetti’s new EP of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto was recorded with Aurora Orchestra and its Principal Conductor Nicholas Collon, with everyone playing from memory. This is a recording of a piece that emerges out of the urgency of the performances that inspired it, and as Nicola Benedetti says, to “try to approach this music with freshness of heart and mind.”
Benedetti further comments, “The solo line of this concerto was born out of an improvisatory spirit, with a lightness of touch soon to be out of fashion, with a virtuosity of integrity and poise. Many of us violinists grew up with such unhealthy reverence towards Beethoven, which soon turns into fear and an unnatural approach to his music. It can damage our ability to notice and embrace his humour, his wildness, and perhaps more importantly, the depth and power of his relationship to improvisation.”
The first movement cadenza was rearranged and adapted from Beethoven’s original piano version by Benedetti with her longtime collaborator, pianist and conductor Petr Limonov.
