Along with the piano, the violin is the instrument best served with concertos, and what a variety there is! Here’s a violin concerto Top 10 that embraces all the great works at the centre of every violinist’s repertoire ranging from the poise of the Mozart via the red-blooded Romantic works like the Tchaikovsky to the modern language of the Shostakovich and Bartók.

Mozart Violin Concerto No 3

Isabelle Faust vn Il Giardino Armonico / Giovanni Antonini 

'The world is not short of recordings of this music and, in true Gramophone fashion, it must be acknowledged that most listeners will have their favourites from the innumerable classic discs that have appeared over the decades. However, for period instruments, period sensibility and state-of-the-art engineering, you may find yourself hard-pressed to better this thought-provoking and eminently enjoyable cycle...' Read the review

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Beethoven Violin Concerto

Jascha Heifetz vn NBC Symphony Orchestra / Arturo Toscanini

'The performance itself is one of the most remarkable the gramophone has ever given us. The visionary, high tessitura violin writing is realised by Heifetz with a technical surety which is indistinguishable, in the final analysis, from his sense of the work as one of Beethoven’s most sublime explorations of that world (in Schiller’s phrase) ‘above the stars where He must dwell’. Those who would query the ‘depth’ of Heifetz’s reading miss this point entirely. To adapt Oscar Wilde, it is they who are in the gutter, Heifetz who is looking at the stars...' Read the review

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Mendelssohn Violin Concerto

Ray Chen vn Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra / Daniel Harding

'Chen introduces a number of the sort of portamentos that the work’s dedicatee, Ferdinand David, would have used to heighten the expressive effect. He does so discreetly and tastefully, and, I think, makes a strong case for the need to connect notes in this way, if the touching quality of the melody is to be fully brought out. Daniel Harding and his Swedish orchestra give magnificent support and the balance, while sounding entirely natural in its perspective, allows all the important solo lines to make their mark. A combination of fine playing and well-defined recording allows the varied timbres of the woodwind, horns and trumpets to make a particularly vivid impact. One is reminded more forcefully than usual that both concertos are the work of masters of orchestration; Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky delight in finding colourful and evocative settings for the soloist and a variety of ways of animating the musical dialogue. The overall sound is rich and well balanced, and there’s an infectious air of enthusiasm and commitment...' Read the review

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Brahms Violin Concerto

Vadim Gluzman vn Lucerne Symphony Orchestra / James Gaffigan

'An excellent disc with high-rating performances and good sound. In the digital/SACD field I can’t think of a Brahms Violin Concerto that I prefer, though Repin with Chailly (DG in standard stereo, generously coupled with the Double Concerto) is easily as good...' Read the review

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Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto

Lisa Batiashvili vn Staatskapelle Berlin / Daniel Barenboim

'The Tchaikovsky exudes a melancholic warmth fusing classical and romantic sensibilities. That’s a crucial balance in performing this music. The first statement of the first subject is tender and understated, the second a little more persuasive, but never is the poise and purity of Tchaikovsky’s innate classicism compromised. There is undeniable relish for the expressive opportunities that the piece throws up at every turn but for all the colour and invention of Batiashvili’s playing it is never, ever self-regarding....' Read the review

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Bruch Violin Concerto No 1

Kyung-Wha Chung vn Concertgebouw Orchestra / Klaus Tennstedt

'Chung is lighter and more mercurial than Perlman, often more freely flexible in her approach to Beethoven, as Tennstedt is too, but magnetically keeping an overall command. Perlman may convey magisterial certainty, but the element of vulnerability in Chung's reading adds to the emotional weight, above all in the slow movement, which in its wistful tenderness is among the most beautiful on disc....' Read the review

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Sibelius Violin Concerto

Leonidas Kavakos vn Lahti Symphony Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä

'This disc offers an invaluable insight into the workings of Sibelius's mind, and I have to say that even in its own right, the 1904 version has many incidental beauties to delight us. Kavakos and the Lahti orchestra play splendidly throughout and the familiar concerto which was struggling to get out of the 1903–04 version emerges equally safely in their hands. The BIS team have put us greatly in their debt by making the two versions available for study side by side...' Read the review

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Berg Violin Concerto

Frank Peter Zimmermann vn Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Kirill Petrenko

'Rarely have I heard a performance that combines musical refinement with a sense of tragedy in the way that this one does. Given sound that is remarkably well balanced and impactful (you can also enjoy these performances on high-definition video, provided you have a Blu ray player), this surely has to be the version of the Berg you go to first, with the Beethoven warranting a recommendation that’s virtually as strong...' Read the review

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Bartók Violin Concerto No 2

Barnabás Kelemen vn Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra / Zoltán Kocsis

'If you haven’t yet responded to my enthusiasm for Arabella Steinbacher’s Pentatone recording of Bartók’s Second Concerto with the Suisse Romande under Marek Janowski (see review), hold fire. Not that I retract, but this hot recent rival offers a viewpoint you may well prefer. It also provides, as one of the fill-ups, an alternative version of the concerto’s finale, more showy, orchestrally, than the one we know but, for the closing pages, without the soloist (the familiar revision was Zoltán Székely’s idea)...' Read the review

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Shostakovich Violin Concerto No 1

Maxim Vengerov vn London Symphony Orchestra / Mstislav Rostropovich

'He can fine down his tone to the barest whisper; nor is he afraid to make a scorching, ugly sound. While his sometimes slashing quality of articulation is particularly appropriate to the faster movements, the brooding, silver-grey Nocturne comes off superbly too. Rostropovich has the lower strings dig into the third movement’s passacaglia theme with his usual enthusiasm. There are some expressive swellings in accompanimental detail. Indeed, the orchestral playing is very nearly beyond reproach....' Read the review

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