Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E Minor; John Adams: Violin Concerto

Mendelssohn Adams Violin Concertos
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Artist: Chad Hoopes, Kristjan Järvi, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Felix Mendelssohn, Johnb Adams
Genre: Classical
Label: Naïve

American violinist Chad Hoopes was born in 1994. His debut CD pairs a work first heard in January of that year, the Violin Concerto by John Adams, with a staple from the middle of the 19th-century, the evergreen Concerto in E minor by Mendelssohn. Hoopes is eager and lithe in the Mendelssohn, if at times a little breathless. His tenacity and fleetness are heard to much better effect in the Adams, a work the composer has described as a kind of "hypermelody". The soloist has to keep in play almost without a break, from the sliding harmonies of the first movement through a central chaconne and into a moto perpetuo finale. Hoopes plays with savoir faire as though it might have been written for him. See url.ie/8fjv

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan

Michael Dervan is a music critic and Irish Times contributor