Isabelle Faust, Orchestra Mozart/Claudio Abbado Harmonia Mundi HMC 902105****

There's something extra- special about the way Isabelle Faust and Claudio Abbado bring a sense of tentative wonder and discovery to the opening of the Berg Violin Concerto. The Berg bridges many divides: between Romanticism and Modernism. Between 20th-century musical angularity and a poignantly chromatic Bach chorale – a first hearing of the transition to that chorale is one of those musical moments never to be forgotten. The work's expressive range, which includes vehemence as well as delicacy, is fully probed here. The Beethoven Violin Concerto, 130-odd years older, seems to be from a world sure in certainties that Berg had lost. Faust and Abbado's illuminating performance uses cadenzas (adapted from the composer's arrangement of this work as a piano concerto), which won't be to everyone's taste. url.ie/55ay