Berg: Violin Concerto, Three Pieces for Orchestra

Alban Berg wrote his Violin Concerto in 1935, in memory of a young woman who had died of polio at age 18. A strong sense of pained recollection suffuses Canadian violinist James Ehnes’ interpretation, with sharply angled accents and a keening tonal quality on high notes. Conductor Andrew Davis draws exceptionally clear and eloquent playing from the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the concerto’s closing pages, in particular, are serenely moving. Davis also leads incisive performances of Berg’s roiling, combustible Three Orchestral Pieces and two shorter works. But it’s Ehnes’ dignified, deeply empathetic take on the Violin Concerto that makes this absorbing Berg collection infinitely valuable.