Bernstein: Serenade / Korngold: Violin Concerto – Liza Ferschtman

   in Piano International (May, 2016)
The Kölner Akademie is wonderfully punchy and finds plenty of drama in both concertos: working in tandem with Brautigam’s sterling, brilliant fingerwork, the first movement of K175 exudes vivacity, while that concerto’s finale balances drama with breeziness. K238 offers a more relaxed demeanour, including a slow movement that is the height of gentilité. Brautigam plays an instrument modelled after a Walter (c1792); for the three ‘pasticcio’ concertos K107 after sonatas from J C Bach, he uses one after a Stein (1788). Lightly scored, they are the very epitome of Bach’s openhearted joie de vivre. The final concerto includes more pathos than one might perhaps reasonably expect, ending the disc rather inconclusively. …