The Week in Reviews, Op. 425: Jennifer Koh, Leonidas Kavakos, Christian Tetzlaff

November 15, 2023, 3:39 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.

Violinist Jennifer Koh and composer Nina C. Young. Photo by Brian Feinzimer, courtesy LACO.

Jennifer Koh performed Nina C. Young’s violin concerto "Traces" with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

San Francisco Classical Voice: "The tempo accelerates in the final movement, with hints of minimalism as seasoning. Here, Koh had the opportunity to display the full range of her ample technique and interpretive skills — from tempos requiring feverish bowing to languid legato lines and high harmonics that hung in the air like luminous crystal."

Leonidas Kavakos performed Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Boston Musical Intelligencer: "The final Adagio, including the Bach chorale 'Es ist genug,' made a deeply moving impression, with the violins and violas unobtrusively joining the solo violin in a crescendo to the climax...and then subsiding just as unobtrusively, leaving the solo to finish on a high G above a B-flat major triad — a perfectly tonal synthesis in a perfectly 12-tone work."
Boston Globe: "Kavakos's keen rendition of Berg's Violin Concerto and a manic joyride of a Schumann symphony rewarded listeners who braved the early darkness."

Christian Tetzlaff performed Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

Cincinnati Business Journal: "Tetzlaff’s performance was gripping from beginning to end. After a shimmering introduction in piano and flutes, the violinist entered with a high, sweet-toned melody. Much of that ecstatic mood in the highest register of the violin continued throughout the piece."

Maxim Vengerov performed in recital with pianist Polina Osetinskaya at Carnegie Hall.

bachtrack: "The program opened with Clara's Three Romances. From the first notes, the ready rapport between violinist and accompanist was apparent. Vengerov’s astonishing technique and unflagging passion suffused the opening Andante molto in D flat with melancholy as Osetinskaya’s gently rocking piano rhythms provided perfectly graceful support"

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto the New York Philharmonic.

New York Classical Review: "Szeps-Znaider played with such silvery tone, impeccable precision and elegant intonation that he sounded reluctant to venture into anything spontaneous, lest he depart from perfection."

Karen Gomyo performed Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Chicago Classical Review: "The soloist was at her best in the more expressive pages, with her refined, elegant tone well suited to the spare passages of the central movement and, especially the closing section of the rollicking finale, where the music slows down and the soloist ruminates inwardly."

Josef Spacek performed Dvorak’s Violin Concerto with the Atlanta Symphony.

EarRelevant: "The guest soloist of Thursday evening, 37-year-old Czech violinist Josef Špacek, was impressive."

Guillermo Figueroa performed Violin Concerto Op. 94 by Miguel del Aguila with the Delaware Symphony.

The Delaware Gazette: "Guillermo Figueroa played the technically challenging concerto with accomplished technique and complete confidence. The composer, an old friend of his, was reportedly as happy with the rendition as the audience."

Chouchane Siranossian performed a recital of Baroque works with harpsichordist Leonardo García Alarcón and cellist Balázs Máté in September at Wigmore Hall.

The Strad: "Chouchane Siranossian gave a wide-ranging survey of the Baroque violin in this hour-long concert, from the profound via the flashy to the entirely secular."

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra performed at Queen Elizabeth Hall.

The Guardian: "led by the co-founder’s son, concertmaster Michael Barenboim – let the music do the talking, interspersing masterpieces by Mendelssohn and Beethoven with palate-cleansing bursts of late Elliott Carter....Chamber music of this calibre stands or falls on mutual respect and players listening intently to one another. If only politicians could learn to follow suit."

The Sitkovetsky Trio performed Julia Adolphe’s "Etched in Smoke and Light" and other works in a recital.

San Francisco Classical Voice: "In a way, Mendelssohn’s trio was the opposite of Adolphe’s, bold and extroverted where hers is often tentative and introverted. But the two composers have in common the capacity for precise and lucid presentation when played by the Sitkovetsky Trio."

Richard Tognetti and pianist Polina Leschenko performed Mendelssohn’s Double Concerto for violin, piano and strings in D minor with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

bachtrack: "The soloists had no difficulties whatsoever amalgamating their mutually eloquent, technical fireworks with a flexible and languid approach to tempo and musical characters."

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