Bartók, Béla - Bartók / Casken / Beethoven - Zehetmair, Thomas

This powerful New Series album represents Thomas Zehetmair's "curriculum vitae and departure," a summary of his work with the Royal Northern Symphony Orchestra. As musical director of the British chamber orchestra, Zehetmair was known both for bringing compelling new music to the repertoire and for his insightful performances of classical and modern compositions, which are particularly evident on this concert recording from The Sage, Gateshead. The album opens with John Casken's double concerto That Subtle Knot, written in 2012-2013 for Zehetmair, Ruth Killius, and the Northern Sinfonia. Inspired by the poetry of John Donne, the composition creates a broad arc between the English Renaissance and contemporary music. Ruth Killius shines in a revealing performance of Bartók's Viola Concerto, and Zehetmair's conducting brings out exactly what cover writer Giselher Schubert describes as the "powerful thrust" of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.