…their technique is flawless, and Yablonsky’s ear for harmonic progression and clear balances is excellent.

To read the complete review, please visit American Record Guide online.

In writing for violin and orchestra Max Bruch was in his element, and these works are unfairly neglected. The Second Concerto always has impressed me as being every bit as good as the First. Like its more famous predecessor, it avoids that Romantic Achilles’ heel, the sonata-form first movement. Here a voluptuous and melodically stunning Adagio leads to a brief, dramatic recitative and a lively finale. The Third Concerto isn’t quite so lucky, but violinist Maxim Fedotov and conductor Dmitry Yablonsky take Bruch’s energico directive at face value and all comes out well. Certainly, Bruch had no issues with finales, and that of the Third concerto is particularly winning, and marvelously scored.

Maxim Fedotov has been immersed in a cycle of Bruch’s works for violin and orchestra for Naxos…He’s a fiery, full-blooded player…he ploughs deep into these two concertos armed with pugnacious intent and a war chest of expressive devices…The Second Concerto is a splendid work that should be played more in concert. Fedotov plays with impressive sweep and a battery of finger position changes and tonal intensifications that are clearly part of the Russian tradition.

It is…good to welcome these new accounts to the market…the advantages of state-of-the-art recording techniques are immediately apparent in the immense gains in clarity and orchestral translucence…At the usual highly attractive Naxos price, I imagine that many lovers of the concerto no. 1 might well be tempted by this disc to explore Bruch’s music a little further…acquaintance with the second and third concertos will at least show them in quite an agreeable manner that the composer had more strings to his bow (sorry!) than they had, perhaps, hitherto supposed.

Fedotov plays both works splendidly. He has that gutsy, vibrant tone characteristic of so many Russian string players, which means that he’s able to relax into the lyrical music without ever turning coy. In the finale of the Third, especially, his double-stopping is a joy, his passage work pretty immaculate, and he projects both concertos with real virtuoso relish. Yablonsky and the orchestra accompany with similar enthusiasm, and the sonics are extremely natural and well balanced. You might be tempted to overlook this release—but don’t. Thank you, Christophe!

This Naxos program offers what are very much “Russian” performances… The playing here is technically polished and the phrasing idiomatic…it’s the level of energy and commitment that struck me as distinctively “Russian”.