Charlie Siem Violinist
The first of the three albums I’ve been listening to most recently on Spotify features Evgeny Kissin playing Busoni’s piano transcription of JS Bach’s Chaconne. The Chaconne is like the Bible for a violinist. You spend your whole life constantly working on it. The Busoni is a brilliant enlargement of it, with Romantic harmonisation. Kissin is a virtuoso, and he has a masterful conception of the piece as a whole. This is a challenge as it’s a long set of variations, but when it’s done well, it’s transcendental.
I didn’t know Bruckner’s Symphonies Nos 1 and 5 that well, and the recording of them by Andris Nelsons and the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester was suggested to me. The Fifth Symphony, particularly, is
