Baiba Skride - Schumann: Violin Concertos & Phantasie in C Major, Op. 131 (2013)

These works were written in the last three years of Schumann's life, and it was a stroke of ill luck that the Violin Concerto in D Minor was completed in 1854 just as Schumann succumbed to mental illness. Baiba Skride now offers her performer’s perspective on Schumann’s violin oeuvre by recording not just the Violin Concerto but also the 'Phantasie' Op. 131 and the Concerto in A Minor Op. 129. The last of these is an arrangement for violin of Schumann’s Cello Concerto that the composer himself made for Joachim. During Schumann’s own lifetime it was the 'Phantasie' that had most recognition with its rhythmic vigour and highly virtuosic cadenza. Baiba Skride’s rapport here with the conductor John Storgårds (a former violinist) and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, one of the great European orchestras in Romantic repertoire, offers an ideal combination that is ideal for Schumann.