The Week in Reviews, Op. 75: Pekka Kuusisto, Daniel Hope, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg in Concert

Written by Laurie Niles
Published: March 24, 2015 at 6:48 PM [UTC]

Pekka Kuusisto performed the Sibelius with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.

• Seattle Times: "Looking as if he had strolled in off the street, the casually attired soloist launched into the music with a straightforward intensity that had the listeners leaning forward in their seats. There were no showy virtuoso flourishes and no grand gestures; instead, Kuusisto wielded an awe-inspiring technique and displayed a brilliantly thorough command of this challenging score."

Pekka Kuusisto. Photo by Kaapo Kamu.

Daniel Hope performed the Mendelssohn with the Savannah Philharmonic Orchestra.

• Do Savannah: "When Hope introduced the piece to the audience, recounting its unusual history, there was a distinct feeling in the hall that something special was about happen. Three movements and a little more than 20 minutes later, no one doubted that it had."

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg performed the Mendelssohn with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

• Philadelphia Inquirer: "Without being extreme or eccentric, the violinist essentially rewrote a good deal of the work's performance tradition. Her opening material was worrisome - tentative and technically not quite under her fingers. But she rebooted with the second theme that established a startlingly more introspective tempo than is customary, and she created a world within a world that seemed almost a portrayal of some specific event in the composer's emotional life. Magic."

James Ehnes performed the Prokofiev with the Oregon Symphony Orchestra.

• The Oregonian: "His tone in the Prokofiev was silvery but warm and soft, with sweet, swift bow strokes and effortless playing even in the hair-raising central Scherzo."

Gil Shaham performed both the Bach concerti with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

• TheaterJones: "He was technically nearly flawless, he imbued new life to the music, and his ornamentation was interesting without being distracting. Tempos in the fast movements were sometimes a bit too much of a whirlwind—the listener barely had time to think and digest. But overall, it was a successful modern interpretation."

Bradley Creswick performed the Tchaikovsky with the Royal Northern Sinfonia.

• The Northern Echo: "If his opening was almost understated, it served only to accentuate a mounting tension that bubbled over in a sparkling cadenza. His slow movement had an aching beauty and flowed seamlessly to a swirling climax."

Sarah Chang performed the Bruch and Ravel's "Tzigane" with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

• InDaily: "Chang is every inch the classical superstar. Wearing a marvellous evening gown reminiscent of a bejewelled mermaid, she was a huge presence on stage both musically and theatrically....Chang struts and bends and slices her bow through the air like a sabre."

Rimma Bergeron-Langlois performed the Sibelius with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra.

• Orlando Sentinel: "Bergeron-Langlois was truly a lone voice on a musical tundra as she generated some lovely warmth over Sibelius's chilly music."

Vadim Repin performed the Sibelius with The Philharmonia in London.

• The Guardian: "It was a performance of immense technical assurance – Repin didn’t seem to play the concerto so much as own it – but it was also one that remained utterly uninvolving."

Janine Jansen performed the Brahms with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

• The Sydney Morning Herald: "In the first half, Janine Jansen played Brahms' Violin Concerto in D with fiery force and consummate instrumental mastery; at times possessed, at other times rapt in airy distraction."

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