KEY POINTS:
At times, in some glam shots, 28-year-old Janine Jansen could be a dead ringer for fellow American violinist Hilary Hahn.
But while Hahn takes risks in the studio - remember last year's Spohr CD? - Jansen, in her third album, opts for the secure haven of the Mendelssohn
and Bruch Concertos.
With the best setting Decca can lavish on her, and sterling support from Leipzig's Gewandhaus Orchester under Riccardo Chailly, Jansen does not disappoint.
How deftly she finds the heart of Mendelssohn's ever-fresh score.
The first movement is allowed to soar but there are also spells of telling reticence - the Andante sings its heart out and the Finale frolics in the fairy dell the composer made his own.
Bruch's G minor Concerto is not quite so vernal, but it's impossible not to be swept away by its theatrical opening, the swooning sentiment of its second movement and the rustic revelry of its Finale, jauntily underscored by Chailly and his players.
A bonus is a Bruch Romance where Jansen relinquishes her 1727 Stradivarius for a 1780 Guadagnini viola. Hushed, breath-like phrases are suspended between climaxes that have an Elgarian robustness to them.
A three-concerto offering from James Ehnes which, with 78 minutes of music (Jansen offers 59), must be one of the year's bargains. The Korngold, Barber and Walton Concertos, with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra under Bramwell Tovey, prove to be a right triple treat.
Korngold upgrades his lush Hollywood scores of the 1930s to concerto status. In performance this is as remarkable for Ehnes' effortless spinning of his solo part as for the clear textures of the orchestral ebb and flow.
A special partnership between soloist and orchestra is evident from the first few phrases of the Barber Concerto. Prepare to be bewitched by the oboe solo in the Andante and left quivering after the possessed final movement.
If Korngold and Barber are too lush for your palate, then Walton's Concerto adds a dash of stylish bitters, especially in its deliciously mordant Presto, and an English conductor is appreciated when it comes to catching the strut of its final Vivace.
* Janine Jansen, Concertos and Romance (Decca 475 8133)
* James Ehnes, Violin Concertos by Barber, Korngold and Walton (Onyx 4016, through Ode Records)