Scots violinist Nicola Benedetti has achieved phenomenal popularity not only in her native Britain, but increasingly beyond. And she has done so, not by aiming at the large crossover market from the start, but with a series of major concerto releases. She's not on the level of Anne-Sophie Mutter as yet, but she's certainly a significant talent who has earned the right to a crowd-pleaser, and that's what she offers here. She accomplishes her goal in an original way, to boot. The Silver Violin title, and the associated graphics, refer to the silver screen, and what Benedetti offers here is a group of film music excerpts. The whole is put together in a nicely unified way; even though the subject matter of, say, Schindler's List, might be miles removed from that of the 2004 British weeper Ladies in Lavender, an extravagant romantic mood links the sections Benedetti plays. She reaches beyond film music for several tracks by Erich Korngold, whose music, to be sure, led directly to a Hollywood career, and Korngold's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35, expertly executed by Benedetti, was a fine choice to break up the sequence of single moods without straying too far from them. Another noteworthy feature is the presence of several excerpts from Shostakovich's film scores. Written under duress to please Soviet cultural authorities, these works haven't been treated kindly by history, but Benedetti locates some pure melodic gems in them. The Mahler Piano Quartet in A minor, although a piece of bona fide film music (it appeared in the psychological thriller Shutter Island), fits less well with the program than the rest of the music; the sudden appearance of chamber music doesn't quite work (the tango by Gardel, track 3, works better in this regard). But in general Benedetti has her violin play a variety of roles effectively and delivers a satisfyingly lush concept album.