The generous and attractive coupling of the Beethoven and Mendelssohn concertos is surprisingly rare. Historic recordings by Menuhin, Szigeti, Milstein and Campoli offer the two together, and on EMI Eminence they come in period performances from Monica Huggett, but Maria Bachmann’s disc is to be welcomed for providing a modern digital alternative, very well recorded. It offers performances of both concertos which consistently display her exceptionally sweet, pure tone and flawless technique. Her reading of the Beethoven is meticulous, but its very purity and directness, its general lack of idiosyncrasy, make the result rather bland, more like a run-through than a real performance. That seems a little surprising, when her principal teacher was the characterful Ivan Galamian, with whom Kyung-Wha Chung and Pinchas Zukerman also studied. So the meditative moments, whether in the first or slow movements, for all their sweetness, lack inner tension, and the finale, bold and fresh, lacks excitement in its very ease. The Mendelssohn fares a little better, but it still remains a rather flavourless performance, beautiful but not involving as it should be, until the finale – at a very fast tempo – brings an exciting coda.'