The Week in Reviews, Op. 50: Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg, Augustin Hadelich, James Ehnes in Concert

Written by Robert Niles
Published: September 30, 2014 at 5:36 PM [UTC]

In an effort to promote the coverage of live music, each week Violinist.com brings you links to reviews of notable violin performances from around the world.

Augustin Hadelich substituted for Hilary Hahn and performed the Beethoven with the Dallas Symphony

• TheaterJones: "He was profound without being pompous in the first movement, lyrical without sentimentality in the second, and playful without trivialization in the final rondo."
• D Magazine: "Hadelich was substituting last night for an injured Hilary Hahn, and I did find myself mentally comparing his stoicism to her easy charisma, but he managed some extraordinarily beautiful moments in the piece’s last two movements. At his best, he drew a fantastic range of sounds from his instrument."
• Dallas Morning News: "Hadelich took a moment to settle into the Beethoven, but thereafter he delivered as exquisite, as generously expressive a performance as you’ll hear anywhere. His 1723 “Ex-Kiesewetter” Stradivarius has an extraordinarily sweet but slender tone; Hadelich treats that as an asset, cultivating breathtaking pianissimos and finely polished passagework."

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg performed Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto with the Oregon Symphony

• The Oregonian: "...her playing was fierce and mercurial; one second she might seem as though howling at the moon, the second grabbing you by the lapels and whispering urgently in your ear. At the same time, her technical abilities have only deepened — the feeling of near-mayhem she expressed came from exquisite control."

James Ehnes performed the Korngold with the Baltimore Symphony

• The Baltimore Sun: "The concerto's refined lyricism could not ask for a more eloquent advocate than James Ehnes. The violinist's seamless technique, sweetness of tone and poetic instincts had the music soaring and sighing to compelling effect."

Joshua Bell performed the Glazunov with the Pacific Symphony

• Orange County Register: "Bell gave it a fine reading (the piece, he said, is relatively new to him), cogent and disciplined in his phrasing, secure and scintillating in his pyrotechnics."

Rachel Barton Pine started playing the Mendelssohn with the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra. Then the power went out...

• The Valdosta Daily Times: "'The audience was delighted when Rachel Barton Pine stepped out of the darkness with her violin, backlit by a few overhead emergency lights,' said Haley Hyatt of Valdosta, who was in the audience. 'She spoke to the crowd, and launched into an impromptu second concert which included a piece by Paganini and other selections. The audience cheered with delight.'"

Pinchas Zukerman performed and conducted Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 with the National Arts Centre Orchestra

• Ottawa Citizen: "Zukerman seemed as comfortable and at ease as if he were in his own living room, and he set a mood that was all elegance and calm, unruffled refinement."
• ConcertoNet: "Zukerman conducted and was violin soloist in a performance both interesting and imaginative but which didn’t quite work."

Tianwa Yang performed the Brahms with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

• MusicOMH: "Upon entering the fray Tianwa Yang quickly established her presence through precision of attack, gainfully meeting the challenge of unifying the grand melodic gestures with the intricacies of passagework, often played with a graceful mezzo-piano tone that made one want to revel afresh in the concerto’s many details."

Lindsay Deutsch performed the Khachaturian with the Cape Symphony

• The Barnstable Patriot: "Violinist Lindsay Deutsch played with such verve, passion and athletic skill that the audience broke into applause after the first movement."

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