Product Review

Both concertos on this new disc were written when their composers were exiles in the USA around the time of World War II.  The Korngold was completed in 1945, the Britten in 1939.  In the course of the 1930's Korngold, an Austrian Jew, had become a prominent Hollywood composer, but could not return to his homeland after 1938; the young Britten, a pacifist, left the UK for New York shortly before the declaration of war in 1939.  Both composers had been child prodigies and both concertos are centered aound the key of D, the most 'natural' key on the vioin and the tonal focus for the violin concertos fo Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky.

James Gaffigan conducts the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchesta on this recording.