From a generous clutch of super-talented violinists of the younger generation, Frank Peter Zimmerman emerges as one of the most thoughtful.
Eschewing ostentatious displays of technique (though it is certainly there in abundance), he concentrates instead on producing a wonderfully sweet, singing line, firm in its understated strength, but always putting persuasion before power.
In this account of the Brahms Violin Concerto he moved seamlessly between the work's symphonic paragraphs, partnered by an alert and sympathetic Philharmonia Orchestra who, under Christoph von Dohnanyi, collaborated with the soloist in delicate blends of timbre and suppleness of phrasing.
Marvels of execution - cuttinglyetched multiple-stoppings, virile yet restrained bowing, discreet portamento where required - always gave place to a natural musicianship from Zimmerman.
Brahms' second movement calls for woodwind eloquence, beautifully conveyed by the Philharmonia's woodwind choir, and they were again crucially in evidence for Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, their elegance of phrasing throwing into relief the tide of unstoppable energy which char-a cterises this greatest of all symphonies.
Dohnanyi's often laconic beat might have been accused of boredom, but nothing would have been further from the truth. Scrupulous in his attention to Beethoven's ground-breaking accentuation and dynamic detail, he presided over a reading from his marvellous orchestra which was continually alert to the latent energy within this gigantic work.
The result was a reading which did justice to the epic first movement's shattering development section, where instrumental colour (not least the glorious horns ennobling the third movement's trio section) was allowed to make all its expressive points, and where tension and resolution ebbed and flowed in gripping combination.
Christopher Morley
