The Week in Reviews, Op. 77: Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Christian Tetzlaff, Lisa Batiashvili in concert

Written by Laurie Niles
Published: April 8, 2015 at 4:37 AM [UTC]

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg performed the Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

• Urban Milwaukee Dial: "Taking a page out of Marilyn Horne’s book (“If you want to get people’s attention, sing softly”), Salerno-Sonnenberg floated her sound out in the opening bars at the faintest dynamic, grabbing everyone in Uihlein Hall by the ear and not letting go for forty electrifying minutes."
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Salerno-Sonnenberg was captivating, in the hushed, introverted sounds of the concerto's opening — which had the audience leaning in as if listening to someone telling a secret — and a vigorous, unbridled, thrilling energy throughout, which she punctuated with a few emphatic foot stomps in the piece's final bars."

Christian Tetzlaff performed the Beethoven with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

• Boston Musical Intelligencer: "Tetzlaff showed a keen sense of the soloist’s place in Beethoven’s large-scale conception, making it clear when his solos were ornamenting or commenting on an orchestral line (and the rhythms at those moments were appropriately a little freer), and when he had the lead."
• Boston Globe: "Here is a soloist who can confer on the most standard repertoire a sense of occasion, and there is never even a whiff of the autopilot all too commonly heard from certain celebrity virtuosos. In this case, Tetzlaff gave the impression of having pulled apart every phrase and turned it over in his hands for fresh consideration."
• Boston Classical Review: "The soloist rushed ahead or held back as the fancy struck him, while the conductor looked for a lifeline, often finding it in the four steady drum taps that opened the piece and recurred frequently thereafter."

Lisa Batiashvili performed works by Schubert and Beethoven in recital with pianist Paul Lewis.

• Vulture.com: "...the concert, part of Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series, was a quietly shocking marvel....Lewis and Batiashvili were in agreement about every odd turn, their shared sensibility emerging in the exact shading of a pianissimo, or in the momentary loosening of a tempo."

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