Making her debut on Decca, Alisa Weilerstein presents three major works of the cello repertoire with Daniel Barenboim leading the Staatskapelle Berlin. The star vehicle, naturally, is Edward Elgar's Concerto in E minor, which Weilerstein plays with commanding presence, rich tone, and emotional depth. Most listeners will be drawn primarily to this performance because of the piece's familiarity, and Weilerstein's charisma and passionate playing make it the album's main attraction. Yet listeners should give Weilerstein and Barenboim credit for following the Elgar with an important if not instantly recognizable or approachable modernist work, Elliott Carter's powerful Cello Concerto. Weilerstein is quite bold to play this intensely dramatic and angular composition, and while it's unlikely to appeal to the majority of fans who adore the Elgar, it deserves its place on the program for its seriousness and extraordinary displays of solo and orchestral writing. To close, Weilerstein plays Max Bruch's Kol Nidrei, a Romantic work that returns the program to a mellow and melancholy mood and brings the CD to a satisfying close. Decca's reproduction is excellent, putting Weilerstein front and center with full resonance, but not leaving the vibrant accompaniment of the orchestra too far behind her.

On his second album for Alpha Classics, rising star violinist Kerson Leong juxtaposes the Violin Concertos of Bruch and Benjamin Britten. This unusual pairing is a reflection on the journey from one extreme of expression to another. Bruch’s In Memoriam is the perfect bridge between them.

Mordkovitch and Wallfisch play with a good deal of spirit and poetry in the Double Concerto and the recording captures their attractive quality of tone very effectively, since they are placed at a reasonable distance from their microphones. The LSO is set a little too far back in the sound picture, and in a slightly cavernous acoustic which may exaggerate the impression of a slightly lacklustre routine orchestral contribution under Järvi.

Richard Hickox continues his excellent Bruch cycle with warm-hearted and forceful readings of the First Symphony and the Third Violin Concerto. Compared with Masur's slightly ramshackle Leipzig performance, Hickox and the LSO provide an extremely fresh sounding performance of the First Symphony. Many opening horn calls and some delightful woodwind solos add to the charm of a work, which should have a firmer hold on the orchestral repertoire. As regards tempi, Hickox is akin to James Conlon and his expansive Cologne performance (EMI) but Chandos' bloom depicts some wonderful playing from the LSO especially in the irresistible Allegro guerriero.

Isserlis's lockdown project is a fascinating collection of interconnected solo cello pieces: Bach, the Russian master-cellist, and Isserlis himself are the links…but the Britten Suite is the meatiest item here: truly a "meditation" on death, as Isserlis calls it, and played with a technical and musical conviction worthy of its creators.

For two consecutive years listeners to Classic FM have voted Max Bruch’s First Violin Concerto their favourite among 300 classical works. His melodies have instant appeal and it is good to see three comparative rarities on this disc. Bruch loved alto-register instruments such as the clarinet and viola, and he wrote these works in 1911 when giant leaps were taking place in the development of music, all of which he eschewed in favour of mid-19th-century Romanticism. While the clarinet rides orchestral accompaniment with no difficulty, the viola sits right in the middle and can be drowned (a hazard in performing the Double Concerto but avoided in the recording studio). The viola Romance is a gem, while the Eight Pieces are colourful and varied. All the performers do ample justice to this beautiful and unashamedly Romantic music.

In his second EMI Classics recordings of Bruch’s two best-loved works, Perlman is joined by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Zubin Mehta. He dedicated this recording to his great predecessor Jascha Heifetz, saying that “his artistry will always be my inspiration”.

Masur, who is far and away the best craftsman and the most sympathetic interpreter of these symphonies; moreover he has far and away the best orchestra at his command of all rivalling issues. I will merely draw attention to the majesty and inexorable propulsion of his No. 2, and the sheer exuberance of his rhythmic textures in No. 3, which also features a red-hot sensual climax for the slow movement of this symphony. The sound quality is not the best, judging by our standards; but it is clear, warm and natural, hardly subject to complaints.

Dabringhaus & Grimm has already issued an excellent Bruch disc that couples the Second Symphony with the Third Violin Concerto and this collection of pieces is indeed very welcome. The Swedish Dances had not been hitherto recorded since Kurt Masur's set on Philips and Hanson compares well with that excellent version. There is brilliant colour and energy in the music that is well portrayed and brought out by this orchestra.

Nathan Mironovich Milstein (January 13, 1904 [O.S. December 31, 1903] – December 21, 1992) was a Russian Empire-born American virtuoso violinist.Widely considered one of the finest violinists of the 20th century, Milstein was known for his interpretations of Bach's solo violin works and for works from the Romantic period. He was also known for his long career: he performed at a high level into his mid 80s, retiring only after suffering a broken hand.

Award-winning violinist Jack Liebeck brings his impassioned tones, fulsome emotional display and formidable technique to the first of three albums of music by Max Bruch.

There are several reasons to own this Vox Box 2CD set. For the first, it includes five great violin concertos in some of the very best performances in their discography. For the second, Ivry Gitlis (born 1922) is a great living violinist and these recordings made in early 1950s show his art in the best way, when Ivry's violin sounded powerful and brilliant.

Now we have all three of the concertos, plus the Scottish Fantasy, Op. 46, and the Serenade, Op. 75, all in one convenient 2-CD set. The reproduction is broad, spacious and defined, with the solo violin in perfect perspective.

During his lifetime Odysseus was one of Bruch’s most frequently performed and highly regarded works: the influential English critic J. A. Fuller-Maitland thought it his masterpiece, and Brahms admired it greatly. It was a very successful performance of Odysseus in Liverpool in 1877 that led three years later to Bruch’s appointment as Director of the Philharmonic Society there. It is an oratorio, not an opera (subtitled Scenes from the Odyssey), and one reason for its decline into obscurity may be that for such a subject it is often undramatic, in word-setting (sometimes rather square and inexpressive) and in its choice of episodes: Odysseus’s return to Ithaca, and the jubilation over his rout of the suitors are portrayed, but not Penelope’s recognition of him nor the fight itself. There is no narrator, and there are very few dramatic links between the 12 self-contained sections.