The Week in Reviews, Op. 112: Tai Murray, Joshua Bell, Kelly Hall-Tompkins

January 5, 2016, 12:56 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.

Tai Murray performed the Korngold with the National Youth Orchestra.

The Arts Desk: "Korngold’s clever recycling of film-score motifs can make the concerto seem dramatically inert, more about colour than incident, but Collon and Murray kept things moving. Korngold’s central Romance was indecently sultry, and the last movement zipped along."
The Guardian: "Lighter relief arrived with a Technicolor rendering of Korngold’s Violin Concerto that suggested the 19th-century romantic concerto never died but settled for a golden retirement in Hollywood. Soloist Tai Murray played with chandelier-swinging bravado which confirmed that, though Christmas may be over, pantomime season is still upon us."
The Telegraph: "She played up the impulsive, yearning quality of the piece, giving Korngold’s soaring phrases a chaste sweetness. In the finale she was alert to the music’s comedy, listening out wide-eyed for the bassoonist’s questioning phrase and tossing her own response back with impetuous energy. Murray is a gifted and intelligent violinist with an iron-clad technique, but there’s a tight quality in her sound which makes her playing easier to admire than to love."

Tai Murray.

Joshua Bell performed the Mendelssohn with the New York Philharmonic.

The New York Times: "Mr. Bell played the Mendelssohn beautifully. He always plays it beautifully. His performance got the audience on its feet for the only standing ovation of the night."
New York Classical Review: "Like the Violin Concerto itself, Bell offered no surprises. But his popularity, and that of the piece, is due to his excellence as a musician. He played with a singing tone, a light, almost vocalized, dynamic, and with a fluid agility that he pushed to some delightful extremes of tempo. The concerto speaks naturally to him, with it’s soulfulness, humor, and moments of stirring sadness. The standing ovation that followed was almost de rigeur, but not undeserved."

Kelly Hall-Tompkins plays in the new Broadway revival of "Fiddler on the Roof."