*****Corigliano: The Red Violin Concerto; Sonata for Violin and Piano Jeremy Denk, piano; Marin Alsop conducting the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (Sony Classical)There are plenty of reasons to pay attention to this new recording of the concerto John Corigliano based on his popular film score for The Red Violin. You have the Hollywood angle, of course, as well as the presence of celebrity busker Joshua Bell, and the friction that attended Marin Alsop’s arrival as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. But still more persuasive is a subtler bit of background. The composer’s father, also named John Corigliano, was for many seasons the concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic. The Red Violin Concerto is the younger Corigliano’s attempt to write a piece that would please a musician who played all the great traditional concertos in his day.That being the case, Bell is the right player for the job. Corigliano’s cinematic opus calls for an entire catalog of string techniques, orthodox and otherwise; Bell makes it all sound effortless and natural. He performs thrilling athletic feats, yet also commands the extraordinary sweetness needed in the concerto’s sumptuous andante. Alsop steers with a firm hand, and the orchestra—heard here in a live recording—sounds spectacular, boding well for this relationship.]]>