Dego’s fine-spun tonal purity and spotless intonational poise are exceptionally beguiling…Wolf-Ferrari’s melodic invention is not especially memorable, yet Dego’s seductive phrasing and infectious sense of enchantment is such that one barely notices. The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Daniele Rustioni provide expertly honed, sympathetic accompaniments.

[Dego] plays the score without any cuts, has the full measure of Paganini’s myriad technical challenges and uses Accardo’s version of the Sauret first-movement cadenza, executed with great brilliance and aplomb…If [the Wolf-Ferrari’s] themes are not quite as strong as Bruch’s, Dego’s sweet-toned advocacy shows the work in the best possible light.

Dego and her maestro husband, Rustioni, are highly idiomatic interpreters; she is alert to the Paganini’s bel canto lyricism and wittily demonic in its devilish pyrotechnics. Rustioni encourages a lush, rhapsodic account of the Wolf-Ferrari.