Bach/Vasks: Violin Concertos - Renaud Capuçon/Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Brilliant French violinist's first album as soloist and conductor. Album of the Weekend, 5-6 April 2014.

Renaud Capuçon is both soloist and conductor in this marvellous recording with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, an ensemble Capuçon has described as 'an amazing orchestra, with extraordinary concentration and focus. Within a few seconds of starting to play, we were all sharing the same spirit.'

In an unusual move, Capucon has chosen to juxtapose Bach’s Violin Concertos in A minor and E major with a haunting work written more than 350 years later: Tala gaisma (Distant Light) by the contemporary Latvian composer Peteris Vasks.

Capuçon settled on Distant Light when he realised that the works 'share a purity ... it rises up from a source. When you play it, you don’t get tired … It is healing music, feeding you and giving you energy.'

All of the pieces - both ancient and modern - possess a profound sense of the sacred and Capuçon certainly brings out the full spiritual dimension to, as he says, 'provide food for the soul'.