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soloists & recitals the orchestra world violin

random musings for monday

I’m halfway through this week’s Classical series run (if you include the runout on Tuesday evening to Willamette University in Salem), and my thoughts are starting to turn back to what’s happened thus far in the performances and rehearsals, and looking forward to the two remaining performances.

Tchaikovsky as a young man.

First, the Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony.  It’s an absolutely wonderful piece of music, and very well written for the orchestra, and a great showpiece for our orchestra as well.  But it’s also an absolute slog for the violas.  We almost never get to rest.  The slow introductions to the first two movements find us playing along with the cellos and basses while the violins inspect their (resting) fingernails.  And we don’t have the luxury of resting our instruments on the floor like the cellos do.  Ok, I’m done whining.  The temptation in all Tchaikovsky is always to overplay, to get overheated and overexcited and just throw caution to the wind.  In fact, it is a piece that really demands thoughtful pacing on the part of the player, especially in cases where we don’t have a skillful conductor at the podium (unlike Carlos, who keeps things moving well), because wallowing is a specialty in this piece from many stick wavers.  Sure, it’s fun to do the “C-string challenge” where the low-lying passages are played as far up the C-string as one will dare, with the winning stand partner lasting the highest.  But that’s tiring to do, and intonation and tone can suffer even with the best of intentions.

Jean Sibelius

The Sibelius Canzonetta that opens the program is a piece that I’d never heard of before, never mind actually heard, and it’s a nice little piece.  The best part is that it gives the viola section an extended stint on the melodic part, a rarity in most pieces, and that makes it more fun for us, too.

Midori - Photo: Oregon Symphony

Finally, the Sibelius Violin Concerto with Midori.  I just don’t know where to come down on these performances so far.  I respect her intense commitment and obvious thought that she’s put into her interpretation of the piece.  There is no lack of intensity or integrity in the performance, and I guess for 9 out of 10 soloists that would be enough, but Midori has been in the top rank of violinists for most of her life, and I’m not sure if this is a Sibelius concerto performance to be put in that pantheon.  Audience response has been terrific, but I’m not sure what my colleagues are thinking (well, I know what a few of them are thinking, but it’s hardly a representative sample, so mum’s the word) about the performances thus far.  Either way, it’s an approach that’s causing me to think, and perhaps that’s ample praise.  I do have to say that the slow movement of the Sibelius Violin Concerto is perhaps one of the most beautiful pieces of music that he wrote, and that’s in a catalog of many, many extraordinarily beautiful works.