There are so many available versions of Sibelius’s evergreen Violin Concerto (1903 05) that evaluating any newcomer against past competition risks moving into Gramophone Collection territory. For comparative purposes, then, I have limited myself here to two of the most recent rivals: Janine Jansen’s highly regarded sonic spectacular in Oslo with Klaus Mäkelä, and Renaud Capuçon’s rather different take on the work with Daniel Harding and the Suisse Romande.

Lea Birringer is a fine, poetically inclined player, who conjures some ravishing playing in the quieter sections of Sibelius’s opening Allegro moderato and central Adagio di molto. She is capable of injecting considerable fire and passion into her playing, which a fully rounded interpretation of the Sibelius really needs; listen to the end of the first movement and in the finale’s ‘polonaise for polar bears’. I agree with Edward Seckerson that Capuçon, for all his beautiful phrasing, was a touch too polished (my word, not his), especially in the finale; Jansen and Mäkelä got the balance just about right and Birringer and Shwartz incline somewhere closer to them. Nicely as the Koblenz-based Rhenish State Philharmonic accompany Birringer, they are not quite a match for their Norwegian or Swiss competition. Rubicon’s sound is nice and clear, slightly sweet, but lacks the presence of Decca and Erato.

Couplings are always important considerations for the Sibelius (which, after all, is the major work here) and Birringer’s of the wistful G minor Berceuse by Sibelius’s brother-in-law Armas Järnefelt (more touching than Sterling’s, with an uncredited soloist; less schmaltzy than Kuusisto) and Szymanowski’s magical Second Concerto is a fairly unique combination. The layout mirrors her first album’s coupling of concertos by Sinding and Mendelssohn separated by Sinding’s Romance (7/22) and is more interesting than both Capuçon’s of the Barber (not that I have anything against the Barber, but it makes an odd bedfellow with the Sibelius) and Jansen’s of Prokofiev’s First, lovely though that is. Birringer is a fine advocate for Szymanowski, not embarrassed by comparison with either Zehetmair or Zimmermann. A most enjoyable album.