British music's best-kept secret? Not any more, not on the strength of this wonderful concerto. George Dyson was a northern working-class boy made good: school of Stanford (his Royal College professor) and Parry. His Violin Concerto begins in sensational style: a dramatic crescendo, an epic tutti surveying the darkening skies of Europe 1941. Enter the soloist, tentatively at first, voicing everyone's doubts, fears, hopes in an extraordinary 18-bar soliloquy over questing string bass pizzicatos. The tone is personal, the melodic and harmonic reach consistent with music of aspiration and adventure. That it is. Lydia Mordkovitch plays it with a muscular, high-flown intensity. An absolute must.
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