Rebecca Hirsch, Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, Eri Klas - Berg: Violin Concerto (2002)

It is good to see Naxos filling the gaps in its early modernist catalog with effective performances of classic works from the Schoenberg circle. Certainly there are other readings that are more probing, or project the orchestra in a warmer light, but there is little of a purely technical nature to quibble with in these straightforward renderings of Berg's most important works for full orchestra. People who are drawn by the price tag to purchase Naxos recordings on impulse will not be led astray. And Rebecca Hirsch, soloist in the Violin Concerto, is emerging as an important violinist of her generation, as her performances of the Rawsthorne violin concertos have already shown. Her achievement here is technically impressive.