NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Antonello Manacorda

The legendary nineteenth-century violinist Joseph Joachim claimed that Robert Schumann’s Violin Concerto stood in »sad contrast« to the rest of the composer’s oeuvre, and he thereby laid the foundation for the bad press given to his friend Schumann’s last works. As the product of a composer allegedly afflicted by madness, the Violin Concerto remained unperformed until well after Schumann’s death. Only recently has it become firmly established in the concert hall repertoire – thanks to the dedication of amazing musicians such as Isabelle Faust. She has released a widely acclaimed recording of the Violin Concerto and now performs it with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. »The style is simple and unspectacular, but the music is deeply moving,« says Faust. She could just as easily be describing Beethoven’s famous »Pastoral« Symphony, which is conducted by Antonello Manacorda, the celebrated artistic director of the Kammerakademie Potsdam, after the interval.