Max Bruch’s First Violin Concerto may be one of the most popular violin concertos in the repertory, regularly coupled on disc with the Mendelssohn or the Tchaikovsky, but Bruch never achieved anything like the same success with the two concertos that followed it. The Second, first performed in London in 1878 with Pablo de Sarasate as soloist, gets occasional outings, but the Third, which Joseph Joachim premiered in 1891, remains a real rarity – as the sleeve note to this recording in Hyperion’s Romantic Violin Concerto series points out, it’s still never been heard at the Proms. While some of its themes have the kind of expressive generosity that runs right through the First, others seem much more foursquare and are underpinned by orchestral writing that is often stolid. Soloist Jack Liebeck and conductor Martyn Brabbins work hard to make the music come alive. Liebeck’s playing is consistently fresh and his phrasing always imaginative, but it’s a tough ask. They have much more success with the better-known Scottish Fantasy, in which a bit of restraint in the opening sections pays dividends when the big tunes are rolled out towards the close.
