Daniel Hope: The Romantic Violinist: A Celebration of Joseph Joachim – review

This tribute to a giant of the 19th-century violin is an engaging run around both Joachim the performer and Joachim the composer. Big-hearted Daniel Hope, backed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic under Sakari Oramo, seems equally at home in the wide open spaces of Bruch's violin concerto (which the master totally revised and improved) or the warm intimacy of Joachim's own delightful Romanze for violin and piano. Hope maintains that the wonderfully lyrical Notturno Op 12 is the epitome of the term "romantic" – touching and inspiring rather than wild and passionate – and in his hands it's hard to disagree.