The Week in Reviews, Op. 251: Nicola Benedetti; Leonidas Kavakos; Anne Akiko Meyers

By Laurie Niles: 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.Nicola Benedetti performed Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

• Chicago Tribune: "From the solo passage that opens the work, Benedetti established that this was going to be an intensely lyrical, delicately nuanced reading. Her tonal inflections and gentle hints of rubato brought the work down to human scale, while the sweetness of her timbre and soaring character of her high-register lines suggested a sensuousness not generally associated with Prokofiev."
• Chicago Classical Review: "Performing on the extraordinary 1717 “Gariel” Stradivarius, the soloist produced a beguiling, shimmery violin tone, as slender and elegant as her stage presence. If the score’s spiky brilliance was somewhat muted, there was compensation in the gentle, almost Impressionistic quality she conveyed in sections of the opening movement and the refined, silvery filigree of her reverie-like solos in the Andante."

Leonidas Kavakos performed the Brahms Violin Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra.

• Financial Times: "This was, by and large, an unexaggerated performance, though (conductor Simon) Rattle has come back from his long sojourn in Berlin with a liking for expansive speeds and, especially, a rich, dark sound from the orchestra. He used the time to seek out unnoticed fragments of melody (or mostly counter-melody) in the inner parts, while Kavakos lingered with his beautiful, singing tone and suggested a deep, inward seriousness."
• Evening Standard: "Shadows occasionally pass across the face of the music in Brahms’s Violin Concerto too and Rattle is always responsive to these moments, for the most part mixing a rich-hued orchestral palette as a backdrop for the accomplished Leonidas Kavakos."

Anne Akiko Meyers performed Mason Bates' Violin Concerto and Einojuhani Rautavaara's "Fantasia" with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

• https://www.hbl.fi/artikel/frasch-och-originell-violinkonsert-a-la-bates-2/: "Anne Akiko Meyers managed to convince me that Mason Bates six-year-old violin concert(o) was not only a furious original and freshly sounding piece, but at the very least one of the best works of the genre in good time." (translated from Finnish)

Patricia Kopatchinskaja performed with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

• Slipped Disc: "I can tell you, right now, that she is absolutely authentic. She is passionate, detailed, spontaneous and informed historically. Her technique is beyond reproach – left and right hands which can and do everything" (An excellent article all about PK)

Patricia Kopatchinskaja performed in recital with pianist Polina Leschenko in San Francisco.

• San Francisco Chronicle: "Kopatchinskaja’s approach to music by Bartók, Ravel and especially the Romanian composer George Enescu proved to be wonderfully all-encompassing, a combination of subtle musicianship and earthy, explosive vigor. Leschenko, a pianist of remarkable vitality and elegance, made her a powerful collaborator."

Please support music in your community by attending a concert or recital whenever you can! You might also like:

• Interview with Nicola Benedetti: Wynton Marsalis's New Violin Concerto
• Anne Akiko Meyers brings Einojuhani Rautavaara's 'Fantasia' to life
• Violinist.com interview with Leonidas Kavakos: Brahms and Bartók