Amsterdam Sinfonietta . Candida Thompson

For nearly twenty-five years now, the Amsterdam Sinfonietta under the musical direction of Candida Thompson has been breaking a lance for unknown and new repertoire. Here, top violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaya joins them for a programme of glorious Romantic music. Once belonging to the 'unknown' category is Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in D minor, written when the composer was just thirteen and a score that is suffused with his tender youth. That the work is part of the concert repertoire is down to Yehudi Menuhin, who in the 1950s rescued it from oblivion. Under 'new', we have the extreme make-over of Ravel's 'Tzigane', an ode to gypsy music and here in a brand-new arrangement for violin, cimbalom and string orchestra. And there's a Sinfonietta make-over, too, for Brahms' Second String Quartet and a selection from his Choral Preludes. You see, there are always the repertoire classics to fall back on!