During 1993-95 Heinz Holliger composed a three-movement Violin Concerto lasting about half an hour. Shortly before this recording was made, in 2002, he completed a 17-minute Epilogue which fulfils a special intention: as the composer writes in the booklet: ‘I want to show that music can age, be sapped of vital energy and end in agony.’ The concerto is inscribed as ‘hommage to Louis Soutter’, a Swiss-born violinist and painter (1871-1942) whose troubled images of violence and despair have haunted Holliger for many years. The Epilogue is called ‘Before the massacre’, after one of Souter’s macabre paintings from 1939, which is reproduced, along with three similar works, in the booklet.

Clearly, Holliger’s concerto is not a lighthearted piece, but nor is it emptily depressing or disheartening. Since Soutter studied with Ysaÿe, Holliger starts from Ysaÿe’s short Third Sonata (played here as a prelude) and the first three movements offer a dazzling portrait of virtuosity under strain. The Epilogue is much tougher, but Holliger does not totally renounce all suggestions of compassion for human victims of violence and fanaticism. This may be ageing, agonised music, but its effect, in context, is less of futility than of hushed awe in the face of a creative impulse that, however strongly attacked, refuses to lie down and die.

These positive impressions owe much to the artistry of Thomas Zehetmair. Few violinists today can equal his commitment to contemporary music, and, since he has been associated with Holliger’s Concerto from the beginning, expertise and familiarity go hand in hand. Zehetmair is no less commanding in the Ysaÿe: a complete set of the sonatas is in the pipeline. As for the recording, it is affirmative in its own way, giving a needle-sharp aural image of the concerto’s progress from bright colours and brittle textures to dark evanescence. Holliger’s notes in the booklet are helpful: it’s a pity that Philippe Albèra’s more comprehensive essay is given in French only.