Review: James Ehnes with the LA Phil at Hollywood Bowl
One of the joys of experiencing art in person is the opportunity to experience something fresh in the seemingly familiar.
This thought came to me on Tuesday night at Hollywood Bowl, as I watched the Canadian violinist James Ehnes create some live magic performing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Elim Chan. And I felt it in the second half, when the orchestra performed Stravinsky's "The Firebird Suite" from 1919.
As James Ehnes walked onstage, formal in an ivory shawl-collar dinner jacket, I wondered - what would he do with the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, one of the most-played, familiar works in the repertoire?
Written in 1878, the concerto also has one of the best stories: its dedicatee Leopold Auer initially refused to play it, pronouncing it "unplayable"; then when it was finally performed (by Adolf Brodsky) the critic Eduard Hanslick called it "music that stinks in the ear."
In the nearly 150 intervening years we've come to love it - and while it is certainly not "unplayable," it is definitely an athletic feat full of virtuosic stunts.
Ehnes was steady and sure - the first thing I noticed was his phenomenal technique - for example, the off-the-string passage with double stops was admirably elegant (m. 165), and the cadenza was beautiful and logically paced, with some subtle original touches that made perfect sense.
Violinist James Ehnes performs with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday.
The first movement of "the Tchaik" is one of the longest out there. We can get formal and say it's in "sonata" form, but for all intents and purposes, as the soloist you play up to the cadenza and then - you basically play it all over again! It wasn't until this "second time" - after the cadenza - that I noticed what Ehnes the artist was doing. The first time - the exposition - was sure-footed and efficient, not a moment wasted. Tasteful and appealing, but no time to stop and smell the flowers.
But the second time - the development and recap - well, it felt not just like a second time, but like a second chance.
For the second go-around, the musical themes were more sentimental, more nostalgic. He spent more time, put more relish in it. The high-pitched iteration of the theme - a little tightrope walk way up on the E string (before L) was so gorgeous I wanted to cry. And the end - so fast, so accurate, so exciting! Of course everyone applauded, even I did. (These days, I suspect if you don't wind up with thunderous applause after the first movement, you might not be doing it right!)
But of course, it was not over! The second movement is quite simple - Tchaikovsky actually had written something more complicated (which he later turned into Méditation in "Souvenir d'un Lieu Cher, Op. 42") but rewrote the second movement as a "Canzonetta" or "little song." It seemed in keeping with this idea of simplicity that Ehnes opted to start the theme each time on an open D, and to go with Tchaikovsky's request to play with a mute, rendering the sound softer and more contained.
Soloist and orchestra were well in sync, and with a somewhat brisk tempo, we quickly arrived at the trill that ends the movement in a kind of suspense - a little question mark that becomes a lingering question in the orchestra, drifting off until it is answered with a loud BANG to start the third movement (and to awakens anyone who may have drifted off!).
Ehnes began the third movement with chords that were tidy and clean - and with a sense of the movement's humor. He performed with great energy in various forms - rhythmic propulsion, intent, and a pacing of his own that worked so very well. He was driving this car - never in the passenger seat. In one spot the music slows to a near-stop, then gets going again - Ehnes was so artful in the revving up.
The conclusion brings a lot of back-and-forth between full orchestra and soloist, and this was done with great synchronicity, a credit to soloist, orchestra and conductor.
Conductor Elim Chan and violinist James Ehnes with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday.
Ehnes received a well-deserved standing ovation, and after several bows, he played an encore for us: the Eugene Ysaÿe's "Ballade" from Sonata No. 3. This was so riveting, I would have come to the concert for the Ysaÿe alone.
A bit of background: during the pandemic, Ehnes found himself marooned without an audience (as did everyone), so he bought some high-quality recording equipment and created a series of concerts in his living room featuring this very music - he recorded all six of Ysaÿe's Sonatas, as well as the Bach Sonatas and Partitas (you can still watch them here).
None of us likes to think about the pandemic, but it is rather life-affirming to behold Ehnes performing this music for thousands of people, live at the Hollywood Bowl. And did he ever know how! He seemed to revel in the sound of his 1715 "Marsick" Stradivari violin, echoing through this very large space, yearning and dissonant. It felt like time stopping, or going backward - those 100-year-old notes by the great Ysaÿe coming to life. What a performance.
And of course time has not stopped or gone backwards. The second half of the program brought me back to the present time and place. It featured Britten's "Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes" and Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite." I'm going to focus on the Firebird, because frankly I just have a lot more to say about it.
First, a bit of a tangent. This summer I helped my daughter move to a small town in Colorado, and while we were there, we visited a local antique store. As she looked for furniture, I walked around idly, spotting an old-fashioned sewing machine, historical memorabilia from the town's early days as a railroad stop, china, jewelry... and then I saw it on the wall, across the room. "The phoenix!" I rushed over to see it up close.
It was a plate, a piece of Russian ceramic art - I have a music box in this style, with scenes from the "Nutcracker." I might have known this was also a scene from a ballet. But all I saw was the phoenix, the bird that rises from ashes after a fire. For me it was all about Altadena, the community next to mine, where 7,000 homes burnt to the ground last January. I want it to rise from the ashes, too, as beautiful as this bird.
The owner of the store listened kindly as I talked about this. I was going to buy it, whatever the price; she nearly let me have it for free. Once in my possession, I turned over the plate and saw Cyrillic writing on the back. Excited, I went to work with Google Translate.
This was a scene from .... "The Firebird." Of course! It depicts the young prince, catching a feather from the firebird. And, a firebird is an entirely different thing from a phoenix. Different story, different mythology. But I've put this little piece of art on my wall, and to me it is the phoenix rising from the ashes, with beautiful houses also rising around the person in the middle of it.
So just two weeks later, as I listened and watched the LA Phil's "Firebird" with Elim Chan - I thought of the fires. (To be fair, Disney did it before me - animating Stravinsky's Firebird as a forest fire and recovery in Fantasia 2000.)
Also, this performance showcased the guest conductor Elim Chan - who just might be a pretty important person to watch. Is she a contender to replace Dudamel, who has just one season left as Music Director of LA Phil before he goes to the NY Phil? It's anyone's guess at this point, but it seems quite possible. A native of Hong Kong, her mentors have included Valery Gergiev, Bernard Haitink and Dudamel himself (as a Dudamel Fellow in 2016-17). At age 38, she has conducted top orchestras around the world including the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and many more.
Chan is an interesting conductor to witness. At least on Tuesday, she conducted entirely without a baton, creating a kind of three-dimensional beat pattern that involved fingers, hands, arms, head, mouth, and even on occasion - hair (like Dudamel)!
Not that other conductors don't use their entire bodies to conduct - they certainly do. Once while sitting in the fiddle section, I saw a conductor loose his tooth bridge and, embarrassed, he kept his mouth sealed shut for the rest of the concert. I realized only then, how much I had been watching his facial expression, I was so thrown!
But the baton does provide a focal point for the beat, and without it one still has to find a way to rally the troops with precision and clarity. For Chan, this meant pointing, drawing shapes in the air - a whole lexicon of gestures.
Certainly she was doing something right - the orchestra played cohesively the whole night, and "The Firebird" came off well, with its range of orchestral effects, gestures, meters and moods.
For me the fire metaphors began with the "Infernal Dance of King Kastchei," which certainly had the frantic energy of a fire. But it was the last two movements that moved me - starting with the "Berceuse" ("Lullaby") - with the beautiful extended solo by Principal Bassoonist Whitney Crockett, and also with solos from Principal Cellist Dahae Kim. This was a lullaby with pain - smoldering, numbed with shock. Very much like the wordlessness I felt when I saw the colorless ruins of the community to my north, right after the fire.
It's been seven months of pain for the people who lost everything to fire, and I noted to myself that several of those people were playing in this very orchestra on this night. As I told one of my very young students when she asked "Is it getting better?" - you can't un-burn-down someone's house and possessions. They are gone and still gone. But amazingly, in Altadena, some 5,000 lots already have been cleared - the debris removed, soil cleaned. It is beginning now - the possibility of rebuilding. People affected still face a mountain of difficulty, expense and deep grief. But - is there hope?
Stravinsky's spooky lullaby ended with soft tremolos - traveling through chords, a little confused and lost - then a glimmer of light. A horn solo - played by Principal Horn Andrew Bain - it sounded like a rebirth. In came the harp (beautiful playing all night by Emmanuel Ceysson) - something gently coming back to life. This music is one of the best musical depictions of hope ever written - and in this moment, the people in my community of Los Angeles need hope badly. The music swelled and accelerated, the feeling grew to a point of bursting, a victory march to the end. The audience rose for a long standing ovation for this piece as well.
Can this story end in triumph? It felt good to imagine it.
You might also like:
- Violin Master Class with James Ehnes
- Violinist James Ehnes to Join the Indiana University Jacobs School Faculty
- Violinist.com Interview with James Ehnes: Four Seasons and No Apologies (2016)
- Fire
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Replies
Thank you so much for sharing! I also saw James Ehnes perform the Tchaikovsky on May 9 but I would definitely not be able to give such an excellent review!
Sparsh your picture is with Jim, did you enjoy his performance?
As from ~ Elisabeth Matesky, 'Apostle' of Jascha Heifetz and Nathan Milstein, Concert Artist also Long p.t. Contributor to the Strad/ London {#4}
Firstly, I wish to offer compliments to Laurie Niles, Editor of this truly fine Violinist.com online String Magazine for her very vivid well written & obviously loving it Review of Soloist, James Ehnes in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto and performed with hometown Los Angeles Philharmonic Orch and to be candid, I hardly recognise any of the violinists in a current Orchestra picture in the photograph and reveals my maturing generation! I recall a time when I knew Every Violinist in the LA Philharmonic and knew 1st Clarinetist, Michelle Block Zukovsky; English Horn genius, Carolyn Hove, and many Brass Section Players plus a Percussionist and all of them from either USC affiliated Idyllwild Arts Foundation Summer Music Camps Advanced or from USC doing degrees in Violin and/or Viola/ Violoncello/ Double Bass performance! Also it seems to me, born in LA, the Hollywood Bowl all glammed up with neon bright coloured lighting above the Stage which seems very broadened out from what one prior saw/ remembered! All Said, I enjoyed reading Laurie's 'Journal' so to speak of her Listening Experience throughout the Concert and, of course, describing varying passages in the 'Tchaik', aka, Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto!! I am not that well acquainted with my younger violin soloist colleague, James Ehnes, yet hear much about him and his violin artistry from other Violinist Colleagues in the US and also in London, my former residence for many years firstly moving there due such good fortune following my rare studies with Jascha Heifetz in his Original Jascha Heifetz Violin Master Class {with fellow JH also Original 6 Classmates, Erick Friedman; Varoujan Kodjian; Robert Witte; Claire Hodgkins; Carol Sindell and Adam Han Gorski, with 'me-self' #7 in Jascha Heifetz Violin Master Class - Khachaturian, JH-7, Elisabeth Matesky film {Russian vers. Library of Master Performers} 28:44 min on YT & other global websites}, Fulbrighting it to RCM, aka, Royal College of Music/London, and for 2 full years, also training it up from Inner London's Paddington Station to Oxford as Honoured Soloist + Leader of the Oxford University Chamber Orchestra, whilst studying with Mr. Heifetz's RX'd to me: "Liz, Lasserson in London", who was The Valid Authentic Assistant to Leopold Auer in St. Petersburg at the fabled St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music prior to The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, with many genius Composer's and Musicians fleeing 'Mother' Russia to make their lives better in Europe and also to America in the Case of Genius Pupil aged 12, Jascha Heifetz, and by 1917, already ensconced in America, having travelled with father, Ruvin Heifetz, from Vilnius, Lithuania, to San Francisco, then known making his Jascha Heifetz, aged 16 American Carnegie Hall Debut on October 27, 1917, with the Full Music World of Violinists and All String Cousins/Pianists fabled and Music Critics, and most fabled, George Bernard Shaw, having steamship travelled across the Atlantic to hear young already Fritz Kreisler proclaimed 'Boy Genius', Jascha Heifetz, LIVE, in his NYC Carnegie Hall Violin Recital Debut!!! The Critic Notices and in NYC and also in London of George Bernard Shaw's are known to most violinists or pupils of the GOAT Violinists in the Leopold Auer class which I came into close personal contact via some Family over in the "Old Country" yet becoming one of only 7 Original pupil's of The GOAT Violinist, Jascha Heifetz!!! Again, my acquaintance with Mr. Ehnes is at best little yet I hear very finest compliments about him from fellow violinists and those with best ears and musical discernment!
I was attracted to enter my Reply {#4} due a comment above of a Mr. Mark Kashper, who wrote about a Masterwork of Eugen Ysaye, I know most well having performed the "Ballade" of Eugen Ysaye, although titling it when performing it in The White House by Invitation of POTUS Jimmy Carter, properly naming it & last work on my Elisabeth Matesky Violin French Evening Music Recital, honouring visiting French Premier, Raymond Barre, over to Sign the Official Agreement of our mutual friendly Countries, the US and France, outlining the Concorde Airplane Routes between the US major Airports of JFK, Int'l and Paris de Gaulle Int'l in France, celebrating the Signing by POTUS Carter and French Premiere, Barre, honouring French Music alla GOAT Franco-Belgian Violinist/Composer, Eugen Ysaye and in his 3rd Solo Violin Sonate in D Maj, "Ballade," to celebrate French Culture and Music that evening which delighted French Premier Barre, due his father, Barre, Snr, having been a friend of the Great Eugen Ysaye, telling POTUS Carter "How Thrilled" he was to hear an American born Violinist perform the Ysaye "Ballade" due his father's friendship with the Great Artist and Composer!! So, dear Sir, Mr. Kashper, I understand your Reply of 'nitpicking' although studying it with the Great David Oistrakh, whom I've revered since his Debut in LA's Shrine Auditorium holding over 4000 People in Recital and very very young stunned by Oistrakh's Artistry and Sound plus his Presence on Stage, one never forgot and still does remember with Adulation! Also, Mr. Kashper, your studying with D. Oistrakh, joins you to a few grand violinist Colleagues of mine, namely, Bibi Pelic, now Professor of Violin in Prague and a disciple wonderful pupil of 'King' David Oistrakh, whom all of us growing up in America revered and delighted over when hearing his gloried offering of Aram Khachaturian's Violin Concerto and on disc and LIVE in America!! In Fact, I fell In Love with the Khachaturian Violin Concerto composed and Dedicated to David Oistrakh by genius and exotic Armenian Composer, Aram Khachaturian, whom I so wished to meet yet providence did not provide this gift yet did so via his Epic Recordings of both The Khachaturian and later on, Shostakovich Violin Concerto's dedicating all Three to David Oistrakh and my good fortune playing the Khachaturian in my LA Debut unknowing HEIFETZ was in the Audience w/Piatigorsky, and playing "Hot" with future then members of the LA Philharmonic!!! It was recorded many times by now but the First Debut of 'me-self' remains deeply special for it was a Gift to my beloved Musician Parents on their 20th Wedding Anniversary one Winter Night in Los Angeles!!! So I am a huge Fan of David Oistrakh, although never studying with The Master yet with him via repeated listening to my heart's delight to his Epic Recording of the Aram Khachaturian Violin Concerto zillions of times and with a sibling who also was and remains enchanted by the Oistrakh Ownership of this Glorious Violin Concerto and actual Cadenza of Composer Aram Khachaturian which I have often performed since my Debut and ongoing all over the World!!! Also later on, I was honoured to record the First Violin Concerto of Dmitri Shostakovich w/Bamberger Symphoniker in Bamberg, Germany and in the 13th Century Abbey where the Bamberg Symphony (American written & pronounced) recorded many of their known recordings ... A Word ~ Shostakovich dedicated both his 2 Violin Concerti to King David Oistrakh!! No Small Matter with a 'King of Violin' recording and championing all Three Epic Violin Concerti himself and most fortunately prior to his early passing in *1974. 'In Memoriam' ~ David Oistrakh, Grand Soviet Violinist ~ RIP Eternally
I started out to render a shall we say little sort of 'Review' yet Laurie Niles' had gifted us w/her truly marvellous Article/Review/Journal of her own impressions of Mr. Ehnes' Offerings of Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto so known and making it now most difficult to interpret with the mentor's of mine, so heralded, Heifetz and Nathan Milstein, having performed and recorded this Audience so beloved Violin Concerto for over 80 years or more so known and cherished Globally! I offer Mr. Ehnes my Heart Congratulations on his obviously loving brilliant w/Elan Offering of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto following JH and NM plus David Oistrakh and a few other fabled Grand Violinist's Prior 20th Century!
{A Thank You to Mr. Kashper for sharing his deeply poignant Loss of his most beloved teacher, David Oistrakh, in his Memo to me, so appreciated, and in the Anno of *1974 not as previously noted 1978. I am indebted to Mark Kashper hoping to exchange more with him on Violinist.com in Future ... EM}
Thanking Laurie Niles for a brilliant Review/ cum 'Journal' as it were of the entire Concert w/James Ehnes violin soloist, and of All wonders, hearing 'The Firebird' and must have been difficult to take in after the Horrendous Fires in Laurie's Altadena in the Early part of 2025, with traumatic memories going 'round in her mind, yet still so loving the Stravinsky Masterpiece, she wrote it with discernment and with the most powerful of All Ingredient's: LOVE which Warms All . . .
~ ~ ~ Musically from Chicago ~ ~ ~
......... Elisabeth Matesky .........
Fwd ~ dmg {#4} *Book File contains LN Review!* Save
Thank you, Elisabeth Matesky, for your kind words about my dear teacher, but i have to make an important correction. Unfortunately for all of us, he died even earlier than in 1978 - to be precise, on the 24th of October in 1974: i remember exactly when and where and how i learned about his passing and it remains one of the saddest moments in my entire life.
Dear Mark Kashper ... {#6} As From ~ Elisabeth Matesky, "Apostle" of both my mentor's, Jascha Heifetz and Nathan Milstein, now Offering You my obviously Belated Sincere Condolences upon Such Deep Loss of your beloved cherished Teacher/Mentor, the late David Oistrakh, held in Highest & most revered Esteem by All American Violinists concertising and/or hearing David Oistrakh & playing in major US Orchestras having made Music with the Grand David Oistrakh, if still with us, to tell about such a musical Gift of making Music with 'King' David Oistrakh, whom to my own knowledge, All of Us in America, having studied Violin with aspirations of emulating the Mastery and Career of your Mentor, David Oistrakh, we all honour to this writing and forever remembering the Grand Artistry of Your Cherished and Beloved Icon Teacher also reaching out to me, and I am honoured to meet You and on Laurie Niles' Violinist.com where Great Artists are Honoured ... Thank You again for advising my date was incorrect and I am indebted to You, obviously having well known Professor Oistrakh in Russia and maybe when studying with Oistrakh, still titled The Soviet Union, under possibly difficult circumstances Then yet carrying the Lessons of Prof Oistrakh in your heart and in the way of interpreting the Grand Russian and Armenian violin concerti repertoire per Khachaturian and Dmitri Shostakovich later on ... May all blessings here in America reign down on You for your Story is Most Important from an "Apostle" of The Great Violinist, David Oistrakh ... With warm Chicago Wishes! Yours musically ~ Elisabeth Matesky Sunday, the 17th of August, 2025
Laurie's review is a masterclass in how to write about music: clear, insightful, not too brief yet not repetitively long. The Russian plate, the Pasadena fire...Laurie has made these part of my listening experience with 'The Firebird'.
Yes. I enjoyed his performance very much but I definitely didn’t remember such detail about the performance as there is in the review.
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August 17, 2025 at 06:26 AM · Sorry for nitpicking, but, as far as i have known all my life since studying it with David Oistrakh, Ysaye's Third Solo Sonata is a one-movement piece subtitled Ballade, so there is no such thing as Ballade "from" that Sonata.