I’m tempted to have an open-hearted rave-up about the latest disc (Volume Four) in Chandos’ Mendelssohn in Birmingham series… There is no concerto more-loved than Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. It is one of the most-familiar of early Romantic Violin Concertos, multiply-recorded and staple fare in the repertoire. It is so familiar it has become almost hackneyed. Edward Gardner and Jennifer Pike have given it a re-think and complete re-fit… I felt I was hearing it for the first time. Pike’s playing sings the concerto: it is breathtakingly beautiful, and the sophistication of orchestral thinking and playing is out of this world.