Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 4

"Misha Keylin, who proved in his recording of the Second and Third Concertos that he could imbue Vieuxtemps's messages with heartfelt sincerity as well as declaim them out with appropriately fiery rhetoric, brings the same sense of drama to the First and Fourth Concertos. ­KBoth Dennis Brukh and the Janacek Philharmonic in the First Concerto and Tajuo Yuasa and the Arnhem Philharmonic in the Fourth explore the symphonic possibilities of Vieuxtemps's richly orchestrated scores. Naxos's engineers place Keylin' far enough forward that listeners won't miss a single one of his brilliant gestures.

"Keylin's virtuosic and cogent reading of a concerto regarded by luminaries like Ysaye and Auer (and even Stoeving, who wasn't among Vieuxtemps's admirers) as possibly the composer's best needs no recommendation. But the dramatic urgency of Keylin's performance of Vieuxtemps's Fourth Concerto makes it more than a mere makeweight, and catapults Naxos's second volume of Vieuxtemps Concertos into a class with Markov's as required listening."
(Fanfare)