The Times: Review ★★★★★ Elgar Album Decca

★★★★★ Nicola Benedetti: Elgar — she takes on an epic and makes magic

When Nicola Benedetti came across Elgar’s early, memorable little tune-spinner Salut d’amour, the fledgling violinist was just six. It made her cry. And she has certainly not lost her feeling for the piece, which was featured last month in her YouTube tutorials for young musicians and is given a typically soulful performance on the final track of this incandescent album (a streaming or download-only release at the moment). Yet it took until she was skirting 30 before Benedetti began exploring and playing the album’s big beast, Elgar’s Violin Concerto of 1910, which is emotionally and technically one of the repertoire’s most taxing.

The delay was wise and maturity’s fruits are everywhere in this ardent account, recorded late last year with the London Philharmonic