An endless stream of lyricism

For a little more than two decades, the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition has launched some solid careers.

Winners who have gone on to cement a greater reputation include clarinettist Emma Johnson and pianist Freddy Kempf.

And sometimes the finalists have made more of a name for themselves in concert hall and CD catalogue - pianist Stephen Hough, pianist/composer Thomas Ades and violinist Tasmin Little being three.

Nicola Benedetti was last year's winner, and the Scottish teenager's first CD features Szymanowski's Opus 35 Concerto that served her so well in last year's finals.
Karol Szymanowski is a name better known by the CD-buying public than concert-goers, certainly in this country. The Polish composer writes the sort of lush scores which eat up orchestral budgets, but, on CD, showcase brilliant recordings.

A high level of intoxication is in the air when Benedetti's violin soars over the London Symphony Orchestra as conductor Daniel Harding works through this ecstatic rhapsody. The Micinski poem that inspired it deals in colonnades, amethyst nights, and bagpipe-playing Pans which indicate the exotic colours of the piece.

While Benedetti doesn't quite have the same refinement that Thomas Zehetmair displays in his 1996 recording of the concerto, she is still a formidable force. Double stops spark off effortlessly in the central Vivace scherzando and the cadenza, by virtuoso Paul Kochanski, holds no fears. All are caught to perfection in the Deutsche Grammophon recording, with orchestral climaxes to make the rafters quiver.

Chausson's Poeme is the most substantial of the shorter pieces, and there is much to admire in the way Harding paints with the orchestra's woodwind, even allowing for a strange horn moment at 1'01". Benedetti comes up with a seemingly inexhaustible stream of lyricism. Add Saint-Saens' perennial charmer, Havanaise, and a series of palatable miniatures by Massenet, Brahms-Heifetz and Tavener, and you have a promising debut.

And, home fiddlers, there is something for you. The last track is a karaoke recording of the Massenet Meditation, so you can unpack your dusty instrument and enjoy a session with the LSO in privacy.

* Nicola Benedetti (Deutsche Grammophon 987 057)