Leader of Aurora Orchestra and associate leader of Britten Sinfonia, Thomas Gould is also a top soloist, happy to tackle old or new in concert hall or tramshed with symphony orchestra or accordion. That he plays a 1782 Guadagnini and six-string electric violin is a clue to his versatility. In this live recording of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, with the vibrant state chamber orchestra of Latvia, Sinfonietta Riga, his playing is poetic, buoyant and secure, the slow movement especially persuasive. Adding novelty, he has used the startlingly unfamiliar cadenzas written by Beethoven for his piano version of the concerto. If the pairing, Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending, wasn’t already one of the most popular classical works (top yet again of this year’s Classic FM Hall of Fame), Gould’s elegant account would have boosted its ratings.
