Elgar’s Violin Concerto unfolds its lyricism and sensuality, all the while preserving its original enigma, the composer having revealed that there was a soul enshrined within it… Three choral Lieder, also shrouded in mystery, further heighten the mystique.
 
The oracular mysteries of the ‘romantic night’ hover over the three choral Lieder gathered here: the sonic fabric literally palpitates in Schumann’s Nachtlied, hymn to night, to a text by Hebbel; Schubert’s unparalleled masterpiece in the ‘Sturm und Drang’ spirit honours Goethe’s poem in which the movement of water allegorizes hesitation between the materiel and spiritual world; Brahms’s Schicksalslied in three movements, sometimes called his ‘Little Requiem’, is a marvel of melodic charm and harmonic colours.

In Elgar’s expansive Violin Concerto, Renaud Capuçon’s bow can only add to the general aura of mystery. A work at once lyrical and rhapsodic, melancholy, sensual and tempestuous, it did indeed cultivate an enigmatic reputation, as the composer had noted on the score, in Spanish, a dedication: ‘Herein is enshrined the soul of…’