Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 & Mendelssohn: Double Concerto

The enticing prospect here is Mendelssohn’s seldom-heard Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra, a charmer written when he was just 14. It’s bursting with melody and displays an astonishing mastery of orchestral writing. Min-Jung Kym and Zsolt-Tihamér Visontay play it with great style and panache, and the Philharmonia support with their usual elegance. Kym takes center stage for Beethoven’s radical Fourth Piano Concerto, a work that throws up many surprises along the way. Her poetic approach works well with the orchestra’s heft and weight; together they nicely emphasize the concerto’s tiered textures, particularly in the central Andante con moto.