Kurt Weill (1900–1950) began his career in the early 1920s after a musical childhood and several years of study in Berlin with the composer-pianist Ferruccio Busoni. By 1926 he was an established young German-Jewish composer but he had already decided to devote himself to the musical theatre (he married the actress Lotte Lenya in 1926) and his works with Bertolt Brecht soon made him famous all over Europe. He fled the new Nazi leadership in March 1933 and lived in America for his remaining years. Weill composed his violin concerto in 1924; its orchestration and harmonies suggest the Second Viennese School and sit somewhere between Schoenberg and Stravinsky. Weill injects humorous and morose themes often mixing the two together as if they were indistinguishable. He uses the soloist-versus-orchestra format, the violin often competing against angular rhythms in the orchestra with an agitated lyrical line; there is also noticable jazz influence. The violin concerto by Latvian-born Pe-teris Vasks (b1946) could not be further removed from Weill’s astringent work. As with many composers who emerged from eastern Europe in the 1980s – such as Arvo Pärt and Henryk Górecki – Vasks’ music has a very strong spiritual theme, in particular the tension between contrasting worlds – good and evil. His concerto for violin is fragile, beautiful and otherworldly, with just a small section of chaos depicting the fight of evil which is soon stamped out. Anthony Marwood’s silvery tone and immaculate intonation is again on display in this fascinating disc.

'Anthony Marwood has championed the Vasks over a number of years and delivers a wonderfully moving and intense performance of the solo part. The strings of the ASMF are responsive partners … Their colleagues in the wind, brass and percussion departments prove equally adept in the spiky passage work of the Weill, and the lack of a separate conductor doesn't inhibit Marwood from extracting the maximum degree of virtuosity and sensitivity from Weill's knotty writing … a very special disc indeed' (BBC Music Magazine)

'Precise, yet generous in emotion, Anthony Marwood's violin is just what Kurt Weill's violin concerto needs … Marwood, who also conducts, makes a splendid match with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields' (The Times)

'Marwood’s sympathetic playing catches perfectly the musing feel of the whole work: ‘nostalgia with a touch of tragedy’, as Kremer put it. Both the orchestral playing and Hyperion’s sound could scarcely be bettered' (The Strad)

'Anthony Marwood keeps a tighter grip on the structural tiller than either Kangas or Andreasson and plays with exquisite polish and intimacy of feeling; he also secures an exceptionally alert and involving contribution from his Academy forces' (Gramophone)

'Both are finely played by Anthony Marwood, who also directs; the Weill is wonderfully sleazy, particularly in the waltz-cum-nocturne that forms its kernel. Vasks's musings are an acquired taste, though admirers of Gorecki's Third Symphony and Arvo Pärt's music will find them fascinating' (The Guardian)

'Marwood directs both performances from the violin, yet his solid command of his troops - the ASMF in fine form - does nothing to take the immediacy away from his own playing, which is gripping from start to finish and furnished with abundant tonal variety and expressive response. The full-bodied sound, too, adds real impact' (The Daily Telegraph)

'Marwood's performances are magnificent, as is the orchestral playing, and Andrew Keener's production is one of the finest I have ever heard from him - which is saying something. A stunning disc, comprehensively recommended' (International Record Review)

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Recording details: December 2004; Henry Wood Hall, London, United Kingdom; Produced by Andrew Keener; Engineered by Simon Eadon; Release date: October 2005;