Three years have separated this second Naxos volume of Violin Concertos by French composer Joseph Boulogne Chevalier de Saint-Georges from the first. In the initial venture the violin part was essayed by the redoubtable
Takako Nishizaki, but in this instance Naxos has decided to share the wealth by assigning three of Saint-Georges' concertos to a relative newcomer, Chinese violinist Qian Zhou. Zhou does a magnificent job interpreting these three works, which were written at an extreme level of difficulty, requiring the same kind of tender loving care and technical aptitude that is called for in the Violin Concertos of Mozart. The Toronto Camerata under
Kevin Mallon both support and provide a sense of congenial confluence with Zhou without getting in her way. These performances are prepared from newly minted Artaria Editions that represent the state of the art of scholarship in the area of Saint-Georges, and the liner notes are written by Artaria's editor, Allan Badley.
Of these three concertos two have never been recorded before, and the first, the Concerto in D major, Op. Posth. No. 2 comes as a real surprise in that it is a tough, serious-minded classical violin concerto without the slightest manner of courtly pretension. The searing Adagio movement is played to perfection by Zhou, and the concluding Rondo is exceedingly catchy and will stay with the listener long after the music is finished. The Concerto in G major No. 10 is a little more in line with Saint-Georges' expected idiom, but none the worse for that -- it is a truly challenging concerto that has many attractive features. As more of these concertos are recorded, it is becoming easier to appreciate what sets them apart from other violin concertos of the period -- they are in the main longer, more difficult and fully developed than any other violin concertos of their age, apart from those of Mozart. Those who are familiar with Saint-Georges will already recognize the Concerto in D major, Op. 3/1 as it has been recorded three times before, but Zhou's sensitive and moving reading of this work moves her Naxos performance to the top of the heap.