Benjamin Schmid - Goldmark: Violin Concerto / Brahms: Double Concerto (2004)

What we have here is an Austrian violinist with a lower Silesian orchestra under a Latvian-German conductor performing a violin concerto by an Austro-Hungarian and a double concerto by a German living in Austria. In other words, what we have here is a truly central European recording featuring young performers who play as if to the manor born. Violinist Benjamin Schmid has a fine technique and a fiery temperament. He makes a persuasive case for Karl Goldmark's Concerto and, in company with cellist Ramon Jaffe, a powerful case for Johannes Brahms' Double Concerto. Conductor Daniel Raiskin is less an able accompanist than a full partner in the performances, shaping them with his own ardent temperament. The Witold Lutoslawski Philharmonic in Wroclaw in lower Silesia doesn't sound like the Berlin Philharmonic: it is far too dedicated and passionate to bear comparison to those supreme virtuosos. While listeners looking for only one recording of either work may be better served by, say, the Goldmark Concerto by Milstein or the Brahms Double by Oistrakh and Rostropovich, listeners looking to hear what the youth of today has to say about two central works from the central European repertoire will be pleased with this disc. Oehms' sound is warm and round, but perhaps a bit too close.