The Week in Reviews, Op. 497: Esther Yoo, Randall Goosby, Leila Josefowicz

April 22, 2025, 11:57 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 Esther Yoo. Photo by JeWon Kim.

Esther Yoo performed the U.S. premiere of Raymond Yiu's Violin Concerto with the Seattle Symphony and Alexander Shelley.

The Daily: "(The audience) swayed between Asia and America as Yoo and the orchestra maneuvered a complex tango written with pentatonic scales, a piece Yiu transcribed from erhu, a rhapsodic fantasia, and more."

Randall Goosby performed Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel.

San Francisco Classical Voice: "Violinist Randall Goosby is a soloist rightfully on the rise, and on Friday, his performance of Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2 led the audience through the music with clarity and immediacy."

Leila Josefowicz performed Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto with the Houston Symphony and Dalia Stasevska.

EarRelevant: "Josefowicz played with amazing accuracy and an unlimited palette of colors and characters, all accompanied by shifting facial expressions. This was an opportunity to hear this music performed at the highest possible level anywhere."

Simone Lamsma performed Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Case Scaglione.

Cincinnati Business Courier: "Lamsma was an animated performer who riveted from beginning to end....She dug into the work’s double stops and other technical feats with thrilling intensity. Yet in the Adagio, her playing was hushed and deeply interior."

Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason performed Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with the New World Symphony and Stéphane Denève.

South Florida Classical Review: "Sheku Kanneh-Mason met the concerto’s technical demands on their own terms and captured the soulful underpinnings beneath the music’s showy surface. Less muscular and overtly flashy than Rostropovich’s iteration, the British cellist brought an eloquence of spirit and flawless technique to his reading."

Satu Vänskä performed Mozart's Violin Concerto #3 and other works with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.

X-Press Magazine: "It’s been said that Mozart could play anything on the violin. After seeing Vänskä deliver the sensational solos in the first two movements of this by turns powerful and extraordinarily delicate work, one suspects she can too."

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Will Wilkin

April 23, 2025 at 04:42 PM · You mention Randall Goosby playing Florence Price...I haven't yet heard that concerto but I like the symphony and chamber music I've heard of hers.

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The Week in Reviews, Op. 497: Esther Yoo, Randall Goosby, Leila Josefowicz

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