Bruch & Korngold

Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto belongs to a time of remarkable creativity in his life. Having vowed only to write movie soundtracks until the defeat of Hitler’s regime, he poured heart and soul into composing works for the concert hall at the end of the Second World War. Korean violinist Bomsori’s deep feeling for the Austrian composer’s music, and the enchanting lyricism and mature warmth of her playing, set ideal foundations for her powerful portrait of his post-war concerto. With immaculate support from the Bamberger Symphoniker and its Czech chief conductor Jakub Hrůša, she imbues the work’s singing lines with irresistible emotional honesty, and does likewise in an exquisite arrangement of the aria “Glück, das mir verblieb” (“Happiness that remained”) from Korngold’s opera Die tote Stadt. Bomsori is a born romantic, as her heart-on-sleeve interpretation of Max Bruch’s evergreen First Violin Concerto confirms. She delivers the piece with tremendous panache and colour, fashioning an impassioned companion to stand together with her top-rank Korngold performances.