The Week in Reviews, Op. 491: Renaud Capuçon, Francesca Dego, Leonidas Kavakos

March 11, 2025, 3:13 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 Renaud Capuçon. Photo by Simon Fowler.

Renaud Capuçon performed the world premiere of Nico Muhly's Violin Concerto with the New York Philharmonic and Marin Alsop.

Financial Times: "The concerto seemed in part designed for the intense energy that leaps off the French violinist’s strings. He played almost nonstop through the three linked movements and seemed to grow more forceful and purposeful with each passing measure."
New York Classical Review: "Capuçon’s robust tone projected easily through the hall as his instrument sang swooning phrases, danced, spun out figurations, and reached heavenward. In a concerto that was not about showing off, there still was no mistaking his abundant technique and musicianship."
New York Times: "He played with a gleaming, sweet sound and glassy clean intonation in double-stop passages where the solo violin seems to act like a prism refracting light from the orchestra."
BlogCritics.org: "As the concerto progresses, repeating eighth-note chords underlie increasing tension and excitement behind acute-angle melodies from the soloist. In Mr. Capuçon’s hands these read like spoken words, an eccentric text unknown to the audience and set in uncertain time signatures yet followable without difficulty."

Francesca Dego performed Brahms' Violin Concerto with the Houston Symphony, stepping in for Hilary Hahn.

EarRelevant: "Immediately taking command, she drew the audience into her musical world, alternately extroverted and introverted. Producing a lovely sound from her 1697 Ruggeri violin, she tested dynamic extremes with variable results."

Leonidas Kavakos performed in recital with Daniil Trifonov at Chicago's Symphony Center.

Chicago Classical Review: "...rather than two strong musical temperaments colliding, the duo proved to be cordial and mostly simpatico partners in a successful program at Symphony Center, the final date on their five-city tour."
...and at Carnegie Hall: Bach Track: "The recital’s high point was a performance marked by subtlety and deep mutual understanding of Brahms’ Violin Sonata no. 1. Every phrase felt organically shaped, with the interpreters never seeking grandeur but allowing Brahms’ introspective warmth to shine. "
...and at Boston's Symphony Hall: Boston Musical Intelligencer: "...the sunny and elegant style of the violinist firmly set the tone."

Midori performed in recital with pianist Özgür Aydinwith in Boston.

Boston Classical Review: "Midori’s playing has lost none of its fire or intensity, as was evident across the evening’s traversal of works by Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Francis Poulenc, and Maurice Ravel."

Alena Baeva performed Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Mark Wigglesworth.

Vox Carnyx: "Baeva threw fascinating, to some extent enigmatic, new light on a concerto many might have considered exhausted of its interpretative potential."

Alex Eisenberg performed Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3 with the Mission Chamber Orchestra of San Jose.

San Francisco Classical Voice: "Violinist Alex Eisenberg may have been physically undemonstrative in the spotlight, hardly moving and just rattling off this challenging music as if it were a straightforward exercise, but there was nothing casual or indifferent about his solo playing."

James Ehnes performed Brahms' Violin Concerto with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Limelight: "With Ehnes you’re riding in a Bentley, with smooth elegant shifts through the gears..."

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The Week in Reviews, Op. 491: Renaud Capuçon, Francesca Dego, Leonidas Kavakos

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