OLE BULL (1810-1880): Concerto Fantastico for Violin and Orchestra, Violin Concerto in A, A Mountain Vision for Violin and Orchestra, La Verbena de San Juan for Violin and Orchestra, La Melancolie for Violin and Orchestra (arr. Johan Halvorsen [1864-1935] and Wolfgang Plagge [b.1960]), The Herdgirl's Sunday for Violin and Orchestra (arr. Johan Svendsen [1840-1911]). World premiere recordings of both concertos and the Spanish-inflected fantasy La Verbena de San Juan.

Description: Many famous musicians of the first half of the 19th century considered Bull the true successor to Paganini as a virtuoso and, like the latter, most of his works were never published or did not come with the solo violin part. These recordings used various manuscripts recently come to light and edited. If you think of Paganini with a Scandinavian accent, you'll get an idea of Bull's music which often refers to Norwegian folk melodies and, in the nine-minute A Mountain Vision, is Norwegian folk music - a potpourri of authentic folk melodies which every audience in Norway would have known by heart. Sadly, this is another case where this Norwegian label only makes this release available as a two-disc set: one SACD hybrid and one Blu-ray audio disc. Ridiculously expensive but I'm selling it for several dollars less than the list price. Will 2L ever come to their senses? Annar Follesø (violin), Norwegian Radio Orchestra; Ole Kristian Ruud.