The Week in Reviews, Op. 207: David Kim; Janine Jansen; Vilde Frang

November 20, 2017, 1:42 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.

David Kim performed Bach’s Violin Concerto No 2 with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Huffington Post: "Kim (played with) rich tone and technical artistry, leading the other players in thrilling tempos and textures that are vividly baroque."

Violinist David Kim. Photo by Ryan Donnell.

Janine Jansen performed the Sibelius with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

New Zealand Herald: "Her take on Sibelius' mix of the stoic and the passionate was gripping, from an opening solo almost feral in its intensity."

Vilde Frang performed the Elgar with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

The Arts Desk: "Her agility (to say nothing of her capacity to hurl dazzling beams of sound) is beyond question. But the heart of Frang’s sound is actually broad-grained, dusky, and intensely articulate, and with her very first entrance she drew the music in around herself, tremulous with melancholy."

Simone Porter performed Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Eugene Symphony Orchestra.

The Register-Guard: "An extended showpiece of brilliant pyrotechnics written two centuries ago by the era’s most celebrated violinist, the concerto proved an effective vehicle for Porter’s considerable technical chops."

Ilya Gringolts performed Sciarrino's Allegoria della note with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

The Herald: "Soloist Ilya Gringolts has even more precision-tooled work to do, often barely au-dible and at the highest extremes of the violin’s range, brilliantly focussing all ears on what the instrument can do."

Pinchas Zukerman performed the Beethoven with the San Francisco Symphony and Bach's Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

The San Francisco Chronicle: "It was a strong-boned rendition, sometimes genuinely stirring but more often coarse and overstated."

San Francisco Classical Voice

The Berkeley Daily Planet. "Most impressive of all was Zukerman’s masterful modulation of tone as he spun a gossamer thin, softly played tone on some of the highest notes of his register, while he also offered a brilliant and fulsome tone on other high notes in passages marked forte."
DC Metro Theater Arts: "...the Bach…wasn’t great."

Rachel Podger performed Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 with the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment.

The Canberra Times: "It was in the cadenzas of Mozart's Violin Concerto No.1 in B flat, K207, that Podger captured our attention and gave us her impressive interpretation of the music."

Midori performed the Sibelius with the Naples Philharmonic.

Naples Daily News: "Even at her most emotive, Midori plays a cooler, more introspective version, aided by that deeper-voiced 1734 Guarneri del Gesu violin."

Francesca Dego performed Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Southwest Florida Symphony.

Fort Myers Florida Weekly: "Ms. Dego’s command was obvious from the onset. Her rich palate of sound changed with each phrase and musical turn — sometimes pale and almost transparent — and at other times full of passion and angst. Every nuance, every detail was beautifully conceived."

Barnabas Kelemen performed the Brahms with Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

Queensland Symphony Orchestra: "(Keleman) gave a charismatic performance; his big personality shining through during the encore (he performed the Sarabande from J.S. Bach’s Partita in D minor)."

David Park performed the Mendelssohn with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra.

The Roanoke Times: "He seemed connected to his instrument, applying different shades of vibrato, making the violin sound often like an operatic voice."

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Replies

Marty Dalton

November 21, 2017 at 06:19 PM · David Kim is the nicest guy you'd ever meet. He played Bruch with our orchestra a few months back and afterwards sat behind me playing Schumann 3, reading it off of his iPad. It's a memory I'll have for the rest of my life!

Christian Lesniak

November 21, 2017 at 11:41 PM · It's not violin, but I saw Natasha Paremski playing Rachmaninoff 3 with the Colorado Symphony on Friday, and it was only the second worst soloist performance I've ever heard, with the first of course being Natasha Paremski playing the Schumann Piano Concerto a few years ago. You may wonder about my masochistic tendencies, but I heard her playing a Chopin scherzo on the radio a few days ago, and I thought she may have turned a corner since pedaling the Schumann into mush when I heard her last.

She played with a harsh, ugly tone throughout. She played so loud, I swear the piano went out of tune before the end of the piece, which despite being played at a relentlessly fast pace, seemed to take forever to finish. She basically stepped all over the orchestra any time she played, by never phrasing with them or lowering the dynamic when the orchestra is playing the melody.

But, she got a pretty raucous standing ovation, so what do I know. The Colorado Symphony can do better, but they also had pianist Kevin Cole play an absurd Rhapsody in Blue a month ago. Maybe they pick these people by applause-meter?