In recent times I’ve had the dubious experience of reviewing what I call musical “vanity projects” such as the “re-imagining” of Brahms Third Symphony as a piano quartet etc. I’m pleased to say that this inaugural release by the Melbourne Chamber orchestra doesn’t enter those waters. 

The disc contains works arranged for string orchestra (and in one case, composed) by violinist Keith Crellin, with William Hennessy and Markian Melnychenko the soloists in Chausson’s Poème and Beethoven’s First Romance for Violin and Orchestra, and Glazunov’s Violin Concerto and Beethoven’s Second Romance respectively.

I don’t find the fact that the accompaniment is reduced limits the appeal of either extended piece, as the Glazounov, despite his flair for orchestration and technical demands, has always hovered on the periphery of the repertoire, largely, I suspect, because of its through composition in two or three “sections” depending on how you view it. Add to that that played without pause its duration is short (20-minute), and there’s a feeling that it doesn’t really seem to “wake up” until the finale. In Melnychenko’s hands, the middle section has a whirlwind central passage...