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The Week in Reviews, Op. 313: Rachel Barton Pine, Gil Shaham, Nicola Benedetti
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.
Violinist Rachel Barton Pine.
Rachel Barton Pine performed Prokofiev Concerto No. 1, filling in at the last minute for Midori, with the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia.
- Chicago Classical Review: "Pine did not disappoint....She spun the seemingly endless opening melody of the Andantino in an elevated narrative fashion, and was commanding as the solo writing grew knottier and more technical throughout the movement. The Andantino’s close found Pine floating in her highest register with the CSO flutes supporting, creating a genuinely celestial effect Friday night."
- WTTW News: "With close partnership from Alsop and the orchestra, Pine launched into the Prokofiev with all its seamless mix of haunting, edgy, mournful riffs, its breaks into frenzied dancelike sequences, its moody interjections beautifully played by the winds, and the use of much plucking and “sliding” by the strings."
Gil Shaham performed Mozart Concerto No. 3 with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood.
- Berkshire Eagle: "Absence of rhetoric was just the beginning of Gil Shaham’s sterling performance of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3...the ever-reliable Shaham spun webs of gold. His many inventive touches included a march episode in the rondo finale."
- The Boston Musical Intelligencer: "Shaham’s most memorable moments were the passages of exquisite softness, when the sound seemed almost to vanish but the emotional depth soared. The cadenza felt like an aria, singing of love and memories. Shaham’s violin grew plaintive, but remained magnificently free of artifice."
- The Berkshire Edge: "Nobody nods their approval to a first violin section like Gil Shaham. This gesture, Gil’s trademark invitation to collaborate, is always his first order of business after greeting a conductor. He is awfully pleased to be there, he’s having the time of his life, and he wants to make sure everyone knows it. So he shines his happy light on everybody, and, pretty soon, everybody gets it, even members of the orchestra."
- Boston Globe: "Gil Shaham was on hand with Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3, a dependably genial work that he dashed off in an eloquent if unexceptional performance."
Nicola Benedetti performed three Vivaldi violin concertos with the Benedetti Baroque Orchestra at Battersea.
- The Times: "Nicola Benedetti and her new ensemble (all equipped with that period instrument necessity, gut strings) were obviously feeling the high temperature. But nothing could stop them raising it higher as they launched their four-day Battersea run of an hour-long programme simply labelled 'Baroque,' sharing its title and repertoire with their new album."
Hugo Ticciati performed "The Patience of Trees" by Dobrinka Tabakova with Manchester Camerata.
- The Guardian: "Manchester Camerata’s festival show, The Patience of Trees, was billed as a meditation on nature and the city; it was structured around Dobrinka Tabakova’s new concerto for violin, strings and percussion....The piece suited the silvery tone of Ticciati’s violin, even though his enthusiasm threatened to become the piece’s main driving force."
- The Times: "Top marks for atmosphere at least. In the dark cavern of Manchester Central we sat in a circle inside a large tepee topped by hanging bamboo canes."
Please support music in your community by attending a concert or recital whenever you can!
To submit a review for possible inclusion in "The Week in Reviews" please e-mail Violinist.com editor Laurie Niles, and be sure to include the link.
You might also like:
- Violinist Rachel Barton Pine Fills in for Midori at Ravinia on 3 1/2 Hrs Notice
- For the Record, Op. 163: Nicola Benedetti's 'Baroque'
- A Gem in the Violin Repertoire: Gil Shaham Performs Joseph Boulogne Concerto with LACO
Replies
Jeffrey the link is there so you can read the full review. I don't apologize for focusing on the positive in this roundup of reviews - the service is in providing you the link to all the reviews, which you can delve into as much as you wish.
I think what this series makes most clear is how difficult it is to write good concert reviews. "Absence of rhetoric' (someone else calls the same performance "eloquent"...), "webs of gold"? What is this even supposed to mean?
"Pine did not disappoint. She was a more-than-worthy substitute..." is one reviewer's assessment, in an article titled "A superb violinist sub." The other reviewer writes that "Rachel Barton Pine, the virtuoso violinist who filled in for the indisposed Midori with just a few hours of advance notice...aced Prokofiev’s fiendishly difficult 'Violin Concerto No. 1.'" Sounds as though her choice to tackle the challenge was well-received by at least two knowledgeable audience members.
I'm not sure that absence of rhetoric is what you want in Mozart 3 - The link before the 1st movement recapitulation is plainly dialogue recitative, and I don't see what would be wrong in bringing that out.
As regards Rachel Barton Pine, whatever the deficiencies may have been, she won't have done to Prokofiev 1 what Beethoven forced Clement to do to his violin concerto, or what Albert Coates did to Elgar's cello concerto!
How wonderful to read about live performances again! Thank you, Laurie, for providing this incredible coverage. I particularly loved reading The Berkshire Edge describe how Gil Shaham "shines his happy light on everybody." He certainly did that for us last summer in Gilharmonic on violinist.com.
Re ~ Rachel Barton Pine's Daring Odds Last Moment 'Sub'!!
As from ~ Elisabeth Matesky in Chicago #7
I just wrote a lengthy Reply to have it disappear on RBP & the CSO. I will be back to reply with knowledge of the Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, which has been a part of this Violinist's Violin Concerti Repertoire since private artist studies of this Genius Score with Master Interpreter of Sergei Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto, Nathan Milstein, re NM Bowing's; Fingerings & alternate fingering's; Sound Colour's for various Themes in the opening 1st Movement; Musical Ideas in even the Second 'Speed of Light' Tempo bedeviled Scherzo Movement, and an ethereal Prokofiev near delusional hallucinational Third & Final Movement 'Ode' coming to a close of Prokofiev's musing's ~
Thank You to Laurie Niles for keeping this Subject Open as I had written 5 paragraphs which violinists would otherwise not ever know about re Nathan Milstein's coloured intonation and eerie insights into his Friend, Sergei Prokofiev's, and I quote my great violin mentor, Nathan Milstein's words, 'Epic Score'!
TBC ...
~ Yours musically from Chicago ~
....... Elisabeth Matesky .......
Thursday, 2:08 AM, July 22, 2021
Ref: https://www.facebook.com/elisabeth.anne.775?fref=nf
Special Note ~ Jeffrey Sonhelm
As from ~ Elisabeth Matesky Reply #7 Above now #8
I was most impressed with your balanced view of the Media Headlined performance 'reality' and plan to return much later Thursday, 7.22.21 to address your obvious familiarity w/Sergei Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto intriguing observations!
~ Musical Greetings from Chicago ~
..... Elisabeth Matesky .....
*1st 3 yr London Nathan Milstein Artist Pupil post Heifetz;
*Nathan Milstein Int'l Violin Master Course ^Teach Assist-
^Zurich, Switzerland { Summer's 1970 - 1972 }*
~ Thursday, Early AM CDT, July 22, 2021 ~
"So [Shaham] shines his happy light on everybody, and, pretty soon, everybody gets it, even members of the orchestra."
Perhaps it should read, "... even the critics."
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July 20, 2021 at 06:24 PM · Rachel Barton Pines was gracious in accepting the challenge of substituting for Midori. However, the quotes from the reviews you post here do not fully reflect the reviews she received. Apparently parts of her performance were a bit rocky, undoubtedly reflecting the lack of any rehearsal she received prior to performing.
You do a disservice by slanting your reportage in this manner. Should Ms Pines even have agreed to perform such a piece without a rehearsal? That is the true issue here. I think not.