“Lamsma, who previously played Korngold’s violin concerto with the orchestra last November, proved herself more than a match for Shostakovich’s strenuous and symphonic creation…”

The Canzonetta opened to the gentlest of entries, the first horn softly supportive in the background and a gurgling clarinet conjuring up the heat haze of a summer’s day. It was her effortless capacity for allowing the violin to speak, with all the time in the world, as she had already done in the first movement cadenza, which most impressed here. There was plenty of pedal to the metal in the Finale, where Noseda perfectly matched the flexibility of Lamsma’s tempi, the sparkle of the LSO textures allied to the soloist’s scintillating playing. But there was another quality here which I have rarely encountered elsewhere: an impishness and delight in unabashed playfulness, most evident in the little extra touches of rubato and delicious slides…..”

“It is a long time since I have heard such a confident statement of personality in this work and such an unashamed tribute to the Romantic spirit. The magic was there from the start, her smoky, smouldering tone drawing the listener in, robust and earthy in the lowest register, a strong and passionate sound where it mattered but equally capable of the tenderest whispers above the stave. You sensed the lungs slowly opening to the maximum extent, the diaphragm tightening and flattening to absorb all the ambient oxygen, Lamsma’s powerful bowing arm extracting every tonal shading and dynamic variation.

The Canzonetta opened to the gentlest of entries, the first horn softly supportive in the background and a gurgling clarinet conjuring up the heat haze of a summer’s day. It was her effortless capacity for allowing the violin to speak, with all the time in the world, as she had already done in the first movement cadenza, which most impressed here. There was plenty of pedal to the metal in the Finale, where Noseda perfectly matched the flexibility of Lamsma’s tempi, the sparkle of the LSO textures allied to the soloist’s scintillating playing. But there was another quality here which I have rarely encountered elsewhere: an impishness and delight in unabashed playfulness, most evident in the little extra touches of rubato and delicious slides…”