The Week in Reviews, Op. 362: Rachel Barton Pine; Gil Shaham and cellist Sterling Elliott; Jennifer Frautschi

July 20, 2022, 2:34 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.

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine. Photo by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco.

Rachel Barton Pine performed Billy Childs' Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra.

Chicago Tribune: "Pine’s sound was both unflagging and attentively modulated, spinning a dizzying spectrum of dynamics and phrasing from full, uncompromising bows. Pine’s encore — of her own colorful, Bach-y arrangement of Astor Piazzólla’s Tango-Etude No. 3 “con Libertango” — showcased more of the same, and dazzlingly."
Chicago Classical Review: "The miracle on Friday was how Pine’s solo violin became a sort of moral compass, giving even more profound resonance to the turmoil and search for solace that Childs’ concerto so deeply explored....Pine’s solo violin arrived like a long-awaited prophetess, seizing the spotlight with her powerful, sweetly singing, melancholy song."
Hyde Park Herald: "This is the third work that Childs has composed expressly for Barton Pine, and from the very beginning you could tell that they were well matched. The composer offered arresting music with a wide sweep of ideas in his Violin Concerto No. 2, and the violinist gave the listeners a performance of technical brilliance and musical sensitivity."
Third Coast Review: "Violin virtuoso Rachel Barton Pine’s brilliant, furious performance on composer Billy Childs’ Violin Concerto No. 2 was worthy of the standing ovation she received at the end of the concert’s first half..."

Gil Shaham and cellist Sterling Elliott performed Brahms’ Concerto for Violin and Cello in A minor with the Aspen Festival Orchestra.

The Aspen Times: "...in the moments where they are exposed, these remained tightly connected, occasionally even seamlessly trading off strands of the same phrase. They looked to be having fun, especially Shaham, who broke into a grin several times at the byplay."

Jennifer Frautschi performed Haydn’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in C Major at Music@Menlo.

San Francisco Classical Voice: "The highlight of this concerto was the central Adagio, which consists mostly of a long aria for soloist accompanied by plucked chords from the orchestra evoking a strummed guitar. This was entirely beautiful and was executed by Frautschi with great charm."

Oliver Neubauer performed Grieg’s Violin Sonata in C Minor with pianist Sahun Sam Hong at Menlo’s Young Performers Program.

San Francisco Classical Voice: "This concert featured a grippingly precise and gleaming rendition of Edvard Grieg’s Violin Sonata in C Minor, Op. 45, by violinist Oliver Neubauer — a veteran of Menlo’s Young Performers Program and the son of regular festival violist Paul Neubauer — and pianist Sahun Sam Hong."

Anna Da Silva Chen performed He Zhanhao and Chen Gang’s "Butterfly Lovers" Violin Concerto with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

Limelight: "Da Silva Chen’s already impressive reputation is well-deserved – her ease with even the most fiendish of runs was striking, and QSO clearly relished the interplay between soloist and orchestra."

Shunkse Sato performed and directed works by members of the Bach family with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.

Limelight: "... he succeeded (in) leading a fascinating and entertaining program, with two of J.S. Bach’s finest orchestral works at its core."
The Sydney Morning Herald: "Sato plays with nimble freedom and fluid ease. In the Double Concerto, he seemed to “sit back” on the beat, allowing plenty of time to fill in the divisions which flowed with grace and occasional ornamentation."

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

You might also like:

* * *

Enjoying Violinist.com? Click here to sign up for our free, bi-weekly email newsletter. And if you've already signed up, please invite your friends! Thank you.

Replies

Christian Lesniak

July 20, 2022 at 10:31 PM · I went to see Joshua Bell play the Tchaikovsky concerto two weeks ago, with Michael Stern conducting the National Repertory Orchestra, and it was just a total wreck.

Stern and Bell were not on the same page the entire time, so basically any big run that Bell had was haphazardly fit into the tempo, and a lot of his big arpeggiated flourishes or other fancy passagework were marred by inconsistent bow contact, so you couldn't really hear parts of the run. The tempo was probably a little bit fast, which never really settled into a coherent reading. Bell seemed to pull it together for a very nice cadenza, but other than that, him and the conductor seemed to be battling the whole time.

It might have been tempting to lay some of this at the feet of the very young orchestra, but the one time I heard Michael Stern conduct the Colorado Symphony in a Brahms Symphony, I remember them having uncharacteristic ensemble issues, so I'm not particularly impressed with any aspect of his conducting. I don't know if Bell was having a particularly off night, but his playing gave off a rushed and anxious feeling which I never would have thought to associate with him.

I was pretty glad when the tilt-a-whirl let me off.

This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.

The Week in Reviews, Op. 362: Rachel Barton Pine; Gil Shaham and cellist Sterling Elliott; Jennifer Frautschi

Replies

Subscribe

Laurie's Books