The Week in Reviews, Op. 489: Janine Jansen; Isabelle Faust; Stella Chen

February 26, 2025, 3:17 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. Click on the highlighted links to read the entire reviews.

Violinist Janine Jansen. Photo by Lukas Beck.

Janine Jansen performed Bernstein's "Serenade" with the London Symphony Orchestra and Antonio Pappano in Santa Barbara, Calif., as part of the orchestra's U.S. Tour.

San Francisco Classical Voice: "Dutch violinist Janine Jansen impressed with measured depth and subtlety in her treatment of Bernstein’s solo part, and all was relatively right with the world for a couple of hours....Jansen’s eloquence and effortless range of expression and the LSO’s stylistic elasticity tracked with every sudden change in the score while still giving the piece an arcing narrative through line."

Isabelle Faust performed the Stravinsky Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Alan Gilbert.

The Boston Musical Intelligencer: "Last night she certainly made me enjoy the concerto more than ever. Her supremely confident bowing in the concerto’s opening chord illuminated not only the first movement Toccata, which moved with irresistible rhythmic momentum, but she also infected the subsequent three movements (Aria I, Aria II and Pastorale) in many marvelous ways. Faust’s clarity, gutsy depth, and technical brilliance came as no surprise, she just delivered a complete package with even more abundance than I had expected."
EarRelevant: "Ms. Faust’s performance was incisive and athletic where warranted (the outer movements in particular, which at times recalled the fiddle-playing soldier in Stravinsky’s earlier L’histoire du soldat). "

Stella Chen performed works by Vaughan Williams and Ravel with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Chicago Classical Review: "Chen offered a poetic, beautifully played portrait of the title avian in this postwar work ("The Lark Ascending"). Drawing on a wide dynamic palette, the violinist played the softer sections with lovely tone, often winnowing her sound down to a barely audible thread. Chen’s final solo—as the lark takes wing and recedes into the distance—was magical and utterly beguiling, her violin fading almost imperceptibly to silence."

Leonidas Kavakos performed Korngold's Violin Concerto in D major with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Fabio Luisi.

ConcertoNet: "Kavakos’s performance was like a beautiful dream churned into melody. This artist has a fabulous but unexplainable charisma. Seeing him enter the stage with Luisi was like petting a cat and watching sparks fly. Yet, there is nothing showy or even vivacious about his presence, which seemed to me to be all humility in the service of music."

Daniel Lozakovich performed Prokofiev;s Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Tugan Sokhiev.

Bach Track: "Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto begins with the soloist alone. Daniel Lozakovich made an immediate impression with his first pair of six-note phrases, enough to hint at what was to come in terms of warmth of tone (his very first note G is the lowest on the instrument) and his very quiet playing."

The Hagen Quartet performed in recital at New York City's 92nd St. Y..

New York Classical Review: "The ensemble, which was formed 43 years ago by four Salzburger siblings and continues as three siblings and a friend, is advantaged in this repertoire by both genetics and geography, and it showed in the polish and insight of their playing."

Ava Bahari performed the Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Bach Track: "...this performance by the young Swedish player Ava Bahari, making her first visit to Scotland, shed interesting light on the work. Bahari’s 1829 Pressenda has a sweet tone, but at times lacked the volume needed to cut through the orchestra and give the work virtuosic sparkle. This slightly more introverted polite approach allowed the music more space, Bahari’s lively beginning and fearsome runs contrasting with dreamy passages where she floated off high notes as gossamer threads."

Sisters Kristine and Margarita Balanas performed in recital at Snow Concert Hall in Canberra, Australia.

CBR City News: "Opening their concert with an exciting performance of the Halvorsen arrangement of Handel’s Passacaglia in G minor, Latvia’s Balanas sisters, Kristine and Margarita, showed why they are two of the most talked-about rising stars in Europe. "

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