The Week in Reviews, Op. 516: Kelly Hall-Tompkins; Anne Akiko Meyers; Arabella Steinbacher

September 9, 2025, 5:48 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 Kelly Hall-Tompkins. Photo from the artist's FB page.

Kelly Hall-Tompkins performed Jeff Beal's violin concerto "Body in Motion" with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Leonard Slatkin.

San Francisco Classical Voice: "(Beal's) best work was a splendid violin concerto, Body in Motion, set in the usual fast-slow-fast template with movements entitled 'head above water,' 'breathing,' and 'running.' Beal was fortunate to have as the soloist Kelly Hall-Tompkins, who possesses a tone that shone like a polished silver wire as she sailed through the piece from memory."

Anne Akiko Meyers performed Arturo Marquez's "Fandango" violin concerto with the LA Phil and Giancarlo Guerrero at the Hollywood Bowl.

Violinist.com: "But Meyers just continued to turn up the heat: luscious melodies then rhythmic ricochet, notes plucked out of the sky and a barrage of rapid-fire notes."

Arabella Steinbacher performed Darius Milhaud’s "Le Boeuf sur le Toit" with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko at the BBC Proms.

The Arts Desk: "The violin part, though played with a mixture of sultry warmth and extrovert shine by Arabella Steinbacher (pictured below), really doesn’t add anything, even at times distracting from the orchestral bustle. The interpolated cadenza about halfway through, although spectacularly played, interrupted the flow and left me pining for the original."
Back Track: "...some of the piquant polytonal woodwind writing is lost to the soloist and is less audible as a result. Arabella Steinbacher did not produce an incisive enough tone to make her presence felt here, especially in the early stages, only really finding the edge needed after she had traversed the fiendish difficulties of the cadenza written by Arthur Honegger."

Tassilo Probst performed Wieniawski's Concerto No. 1 with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and Daniel Raiskin.

WeekendSpecial: "Tassilo Probst, the violinist, made as good a case for the work as one is likely to hear, live."

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The Week in Reviews, Op. 516: Kelly Hall-Tompkins; Anne Akiko Meyers; Arabella Steinbacher

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