The Week in Reviews, Op. 95: Christian Tetzlaff; Ray Chen; Simone Lamsma

August 18, 2015, 3:41 PM · In an effort to promote the coverage of live violin performance, Violinist.com each week presents links to reviews of notable concerts and recitals around the world.

Ray Chen performed the Mendelssohn with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Los Angeles Times: "Rather than glide his bow across the strings as if gravity could be defied, he conveyed the corporeal sense of pressure. It's a complex sound with a grainy texture that you can almost feel. Every phrase in the Mendelssohn was treated to fervent expression, although a fervent expression that never for a second appeared spontaneous. He's worked out every move."

Christian Tetzlaff. ©Photo: Giorgia Bertazzi

Christian Tetzlaff performed Mendelssohn with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Boston Musical Intelligencer: "Soloist Christian Tetzlaff displayed virtuosity through subtlety, both in his pianissimo playing (scarcely audible from the tenth row) and in his sensitivity to Nelsons’s well-shaped phrases and frequent use of rubato."
The Republican: "The German soloist also perfectly captured the flurry of notes and fast changes in tempo that come several times near the end of the first movement. The same goes for the slower, soulful second movement. As a light rain fell outside, Tetzlaff vividly brought this gorgeous movement to life."
Boston Globe: "You would think that fresh takes on such a warhorse would be hard to find — and they are. But Tetzlaff drew out new dimensions of this score through the twinned specificity and freedom of his phrasing, the daringly wide range of his dynamics, and the chamber music-like vision he brought to the finale."

Simone Lamsma performed the Tchaikovsky with the Cleveland Orchestra.

The Plain Dealer: "Decisive, meanwhile, doesn't even begin to describe violinist Simone Lamsma, soloist Saturday in the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. She, frankly, went several steps further, offering one of the most aggressive, boundary-pushing accounts of the work this listener has heard in some time.">

Julian Rachlin performed the Sibelius with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

The Guardian: "Rachlin’s challengingly introspective account, with the violin sometimes a still, small voice amid the swelling orchestral cosmos, came across as rather too calculated to be entirely persuasive."
The Telegraph: "In the Violin Concerto Julian Rachlin summoned an appropriately heroic ringing tone, but what started out as a promisingly original interpretation ended up seeming distractingly mannered."
Evening Standard: "In the Violin Concerto, Julian Rachlin was an unusually inward-looking soloist, his sound small but commanding."
The Arts Desk: "All that remained here was the beauty of tone, the majesty of double-stopping: impressive, but still not enough."

Nicola Benedetti performed the Glazunov with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Guardian: "Nicola Benedetti made plenty of the big, burnished melodies in Glazunov’s syrupy Violin Concerto but was less at home in skittish passages. Her presence guaranteed the hall was full, but this didn’t seem quite the right concerto or the right night."
Edinburgh Guide: "Her interpretation, with its various moods and themes, was technically brilliant, particularly in the cadenza. The audience showed their appreciation and she graciously played the Sarabande from Bach’s D minor partita as an encore."

Alina Ibragimova performed works by Vivaldi and Bach with Apollo’s Fire.

The Plain Dealer: "Wednesday night, she demonstrated her ability to shift from modern repertoire to 18th-century works with ease."
The Telegraph: "The 29-year-old has a large repertoire, but her temperament most perfectly fits that of a Baroque soloist: imaginatively involved with her subject but always on the edge of restraint. Producing a crystalline and finely tapered sound, she brought out the best of Vivaldi, a composer for whom technique itself was the primary mode of expressiveness."

Please support music in your community by attending a concert or recital whenever you can!

Replies

Paul Deck

August 19, 2015 at 01:50 AM · Let's hear it for Ray Chen, using pressure instead of "weight" on his bow.

Gene Huang

August 19, 2015 at 04:30 AM · I almost can't tell if the LA Times review on Ray Chen was positive or negative. :-P

marjory lange

August 20, 2015 at 02:35 AM · I had the same reaction as Gene; the best that can be said is the review damns with faint praise, but if the ambiguity is deliberate...

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The Week in Reviews, Op. 95: Christian Tetzlaff; Ray Chen; Simone Lamsma

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