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The Week in Reviews, Op. 511: Kristin Lee, Rachel Barton Pine, Leonidas Kavakos

August 5, 2025, 11:31 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.

Kristin Lee and pianist Michael Stephen Brown performed in recital at Music@Menlo.

• San Francisco Classical Voice: "...the concert demonstrated an impressive variety of styles and techniques going on simultaneously within American music."

Rachel Barton Pine performed the world premiere of Malek Jandali's Violin Concerto with Summermusik and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and Eckart Preu.

• Violinist.com: "Pine is an expert interpreter of ideas both new and old....Her rich musical experience and willingness to just 'go there' helped bring to life Jandali's concerto, with its catchy melodies, many moods and Arabic colors."
• Cincinnati Business Journal: "Jandali’s Violin Concerto is a significant work of great beauty that seems destined to live on in many more performances....Pine’s expressive gifts were ideal for this music. Her phrasing of its lyrical melodies had a poignant quality. The writing sometimes drew the violinist high into the stratosphere of her instrument, a Guiseppe Guarneri “del Gesu” of 1742. But there was also much opportunity for virtuosity, such as moments of intense double stops, arpeggios and other flourishes."

Leonidas Kavakos performed Korngold’s Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Elim Chan at Tanglewood.

• Boston Musical Intelligencer: "Violinist Leonidas Kavakos played the part of the central hero, at times raging against the orchestra and as times leading it."
• Bach Track: "Leonidas Kavakos, a frequent guest at Tanglewood, played with a quiet authority that privileged refinement over dazzle. His tone, especially in the middle and lower registers, was warm and centred, and his phrasing revealed emotional profundity, though always within a framework of restraint."

Jennifer Koh performed Missy Mazzoli's "Procession" with Cabrillo Festival Orchestra.

• San Francisco Classical Voice: "More than most recent concertos, Mazzoli’s sounded as if it was pitting the violin against the orchestra. Koh ground out a raw tone, sawing her bow or double-stopping with intensity, and going her own way rhythmically against the orchestra which mutated from still shimmerings to held growls, snapping strings, and other exclamations commenting on the musical journey."

Benjamin Lenzmeier performed with harpsichordist Sean Kleve at the Baroque Room in St. Paul, Minn.

• TwinCities.com: "...the two musicians played music by seven Italian composers from the 17th and 18th centuries, and their enthusiasm for the old music — as well as the historical way the music was played — was infectious."

Leila Josefowicz performed Berg's Violin Concerto with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Han-Na Chang.

• Bach Track: "Possessing a singular vision that led from its gentle swaying opening and moments of whimsy (in a Ländler dance), through tragedy and violent upheaval to ultimate solace, this was her guiding one through a musical equivalent of Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’ five stages of grief. It was a reading that gripped one’s attention from the outset and never let up for a moment."

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

You might also like:

• The Week in Reviews, Op. 510: María Dueñas, Pekka Kuusisto, Augustin Hadelich
• The Week in Reviews, Op. 509: Lisa Batiashvili; Augustin Hadelich; Veronika Eberle
• The Week in Reviews, Op. 508: Pekka Kuusisto; New Hollywood String Quartet; Joshua Bell

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