At their popular Haspa New Year’s Concert, the Symphoniker Hamburg under the baton of conductor Kirill Karabits makes an entertaining excursion into the world of Russian Romanticism. Although Tchaikovsky’s Op. 35 has long been one of the best-known violin concertos in the repertoire, contemporary critics turned up their noses: »Some compositions really stink up the room« was the barbed remark of one reviewer. They couldn’t have been more wrong, as is ably demonstrated by virtuoso Guy Braunstein, a longstanding guest artist with the Hamburg-based orchestra. read less