GRAMOPHONE Review: Sibelius Violin Concerto/Lemminkäinen Suite – Ava Bahari, Gothenberg Symphony Orchestra/Rouvali

Hugely impressed by Ava Bahari here. She is truly a storyteller. There is untold generosity and cleanness to the playing and the best way I can express what sets apart her reading of this oft-performed piece is the value with which she imbues every note, be it part of a singing phrase or a driving rush of pyrotechnics. Nothing is ‘incidental’, every note has a purpose. And it’s generous too, expansive in the best sense with natural sounding rubatos. Her partner in this endeavour – Santtu-Matias Rouvali – is like-minded, carving out the rugged contours with dramatic starkness (the Gothenburg Symphony and he understand the work ‘elemental’) and turning the quietudes into deafening silence. Sonically speaking, I love the immediacy, the way focus is pulled on so much inner detail – like those brooding bassoons in the first movement. Things which might escape notice in the concert hall. And the climaxes really are forbidding. The second movement Adagio di molto is truly an aria – heartfelt…