This is a Premiere – for Antje Weithaas. Her first orchestral recording with two of the “big” solo concertos. And obviously also the realization of one of her top dreams and wishes; the combination of her two favourite concertos. At the time of the recording (2012) Steven Sloane was still Music Director of the Stavanger Sympfoniorkester.

Yet another recording of the Beethoven Violin Concerto? Haven’t enough exemplary recordings been made already, in overwhelming quantity? Antje Weithaas laughs: “I know. But I have dealt with this piece so intensely over the years that I believe to have found a self-sufficient version. With this piece, which I love so much, I feel a certain inner assurance.” Weithaas still remembers the very moment when, as a schoolchild, she nonchalantly placed her parents’ worn-out score of the Beethoven Concerto on the music stand with the intention of sight-reading it. Later on, at university level, she seriously mastered the work, and it has remained her constant companion ever since.

As far as Weithaas is concerned, both of these concertos are “celestial music, difficult to describe in words. This music allows us to delve so deeply into the composer’s soul.” She pauses for a moment: “Also into mine.” (Excerpt from the booklet’s liner notes by Cornelia de Reese)