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Classical Album of the Week: Rachel Barton Pine Plays Elgar & Bruch Violin Concertos

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine

October 22, 2018. Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, called "striking and charasmatic" with "bravura technique and soulful musicianship" ("The New York Times") has recorded violin concertos by Elgar and Bruch on one CD with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. It's our pick for classical album of the week.

They were written 40 years apart in different countries. Bruch's first violin concerto is short; Elgar's concerto is one of the longest of the genre. And yet, Rachel Barton Pine felt they belonged together.

"They are both very personal, very human works," she says. "They are passionate; they are intimate. And the kind of sound you want to get out of the violin is very similar."

Her 2018 recording of these two works is dedicated to the memory of conductor Sir Neville Marriner, with whom she had planned to reunite on this recording, but who died shortly before it was made. His teacher, Billy Reed, had collaborated closely with Elgar in the composition of this concerto, and Rachel Barton Pine shares some of the stories about its creation with WRTI's Susan Lewis. She also talks about how she uses the Bruch concerto to introduce newcomers to classical music.

Susan writes and produces stories about music and the arts. She’s host and producer of WRTI’s TIME IN online interview series, and contributes weekly intermission interviews for The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert series. She’s also been a regular host of WRTI’s Live from the Performance Studio sessions.