In the last movement of Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto, Patricia Kopatchinskaja takes the composer’s ben marcato seriously, using heavy accentuation to produce the effect of a pungent danse macabre. Even the contrasting legato melody is presented with a sinister, flautando sound. Janine Jansen’s performance (also with Jurowski and the LPO) is less extreme, with plenty of variety, but stays closer to ‘normal’ tone production and bowing. In the first two movements there’s a similar contrast, Kopatchinskaja, with sharper characterisation, presenting a more individualistic view than Jansen. For example, she plays the ......
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