The Week in Reviews, Op. 195: Leila Josefowicz; Pekka Kuusisto; InMo Yang

August 28, 2017, 12:05 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.

Leila Josefowicz performed the Stravinsky with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Click here to listen to this BBC Prom 50 performance.

The Guardian: "Leila Josefowicz was the fierce, fast-witted soloist, who relished every detail of the scoring and the chain of partnerships it sets up between the solo violin and the orchestral principals, all of them brought vividly into the foregound by (Mirga) Gražinyte-Tyla."
The Arts Desk: "Not for her any metrical rigidity; she set such a dangerous pace for the finale that you wondered if Mirga could keep tabs on her. But she did, and in any case Josefowicz was tuned in to the orchestral soloists so far behind her in various duets, making wonderful triangles with Mirga and flautist Marie-Christine Zupancic, later replaced by first horn Elspeth Dutch: ineffable woman power at the Proms. Just occasionally she seemed to be playing from her own special edition, but the suppression of a trill here, a double-stopping there only seemed to help Stravinsky's imaginative strangeness."

Leila Josefowicz. Photo by Chris Lee.

Pekka Kuusisto performed the premiere of Daníel Bjarnason's Violin Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.

Los Angeles Times: "Kuusisto is an extravagant player whose party tricks include singing along as he plays and messing around with Finnish folk music with hipster irreverence. He does that in the concerto, and he also does a lot more, including sawing away on the strings in such a way that it got the whole Bowl vibrating. The orchestra follows his lead, whether going in for glitz or glassy stillness. The two big cadenzas are amazing showpieces. The center section between them is a static orchestral color field. The final section could be a rowdy rite at an Icelandic hot springs."

InMo Yang performed the Bruch with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia.

Chicago Tribune: "As soloist in Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, Yang displayed a depth of musical feeling beyond the 'wow' technique one expects to hear from competition winners such as he. The sweetness of his tone, the elegance of his bow work and the accuracy of his intonation were much to be admired."

Karen Gomyo performed the Bruch with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

National Business Review: "Karen Gomyo was more than inspiring – she was spectacular. She not only played with an exceptional, technical wizardry but also her demeanour added to the richness of the work."

Lisa Batiashvili performed the Tchaikovsky with the Estonian Festival Orchestra.

The Arts Desk: "...though her brilliant, intonation-perfect tone kept us admirable company throughout, the wonders lay in a supporting clarinet arpeggio here, a bassoon line there (from the superb Rie Koyama)."

Augustin Hadelich performed the Dvorak with the Cleveland Orchestra.

The Plain Dealer: "Many violinists in this score go too far in the direction of fire and grit. Not Hadelich. His performance of the first movement was the epitome of patience and control. And yet there was no rigidity. Lyricism, in fact, abounded, and every phrase came off sounding fully expressive and deeply considered. In the Finale, too, in virtuoso passages he could have soared through without thought, Hadelich found meaning and even warmth."

Leonidas Kavakos performed the Brahms with the Filarmonica della Scala. Click here to listen to this BBC Prom 54 performance.>

The Arts Desk: "Leonidas Kavakos simply didn't have the consistency to thread the lyrical with the virtuosic aspects and say something new about the Brahms staple, and he was surprisingly subdued at times."

Please support music in your community by attending a concert or recital whenever you can!

Replies

Trevor Jennings

August 28, 2017 at 11:35 PM · I watched Leila Josefowicz on TV performing the Stravinsky. She and Lithuanian conductor Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla really hit it off in this difficult but hugely exciting concerto. I agree with the critics' comments.

In a pre-concert interview Leila Josefowicz explained how she approached the extraordinarily difficult chord that starts each movement of the concerto: she hasn't got large hands, she said, and the answer boils down to one word - flexibility.

31-year old Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, now in her second year with the CBSO, has two entirely different conducting styles, both of which she used to effect in the concert: the first is from memory and sans baton - this was for the opening piece Leonora 3 and, later on, Beethoven's 5th. This really got 110% out of the CBSO. It wouldn't surprise me if Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla had trained as a dancer sometime.

The second style is the standard one with stick and score; this was how she conducted the Stravinsky and the world premiere of a new work "Canada" for tenor and orchestra by Irish composer Gerald Barry, both difficult pieces certainly needing that conducting style.

Laurie Niles

August 29, 2017 at 04:48 PM · I've seen Mirga conduct, and people wildly love her. But I did wonder about stick technique, or non-stick technique, and if it might be tricky in a piece that would require a conductor to account for the changing meters, etc. to keep the train on the tracks! She does seem to know how to take risks and push right up to the edge without going over it!