ConcertPulse
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Frank Peter Zimmermann / Andris Poga
Elbphilharmonie, Großer Saal (Hamburg)
»If you want to know who I consider to be the most important living composer, I say without hesitation: Elgar... I put him on the same level as my idols Beethoven and Brahms.« This is how the violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler enthused about Edward Elgar in 1905 – and added a personal request: »I wish Elgar would compose something for the violin.« The flattered man was happy to fulfil this wish. Albeit with a few years’ delay. Edward Elgar completed his violin concerto in 1910. The piece was tailor-made for Fritz Kreisler: Elgar placed an extremely demanding solo part in his hands. The sheer abundance of virtuosic cascades and furiously fast arpeggios are such a great challenge that many soloists avoid them. Frank Peter Zimmermann, on the other hand, has taken it on several times and performed the fifty-minute mammoth work with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, for example. In February 2025, he will join the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra to savour the rapturous glow and late Romantic colours of the concerto under the direction of Andris Poga.