The Week in Reviews, Op. 299: Maxim Vengerov; Stefan Jackiw; Daniel Lozakovich

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.Maxim Vengerov performed Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

• Dallas Morning News: "Vengerov seemed to channel the finest features of Russian violin playing dating back to the great David Oistrakh (1908-1974). He could draw a huge but finely focused and polished sound from his ex-Kreutzer Stradivarius, but also the sweetest and most delicate pianissimos. He dispatched virtuoso passages with seemingly effortless élan but shaped lyric music with a fine singer’s sensitivity."
• Theater Jones: "On Thursday evening, Vengerov delivered. That first phrase, which climbs more than two and a half octaves to its end, is marked in the score with the slightest decrescendo, but Vengerov allowed the phrase to die away to nothing. Perfection."

Stefan Jackiw performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor with the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.

• Boston Globe: "...there was nothing routine or canned about Jackiw’s fiercely alert music-making on Sunday. Every phrase had its own distinctive shaping. Forward-leaning tempos in the outer movements conveyed a rhapsodic intensity."
• Boston Musical Intelligencer: "Jackiw’s immersion in historically informed performance style (yes this goes on in Mendelssohn) enlivened the warhorse concerto with much unexpected variety and interest. Instead of long lush melodic lines from the violin we heard shorter phrases given out with little vibrato and tapering off at the ends, their individual characters emphasized, and rhythmic motifs conveyed as gestures and not necessarily precisely in rhythm. Jackiw somehow made this approach sound utterly natural and un-studied."

Daniel Lozakovich performed the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

• The Boston Globe: "On Thursday (the Tchaikovsky) was given a vividly dispatched, technically adroit rendition by the 18-year-old, Swedish-born violinist Daniel Lozakovich. He is clearly a gifted player with a bright future, and he won a cheering ovation on Thursday night."

Gil Shaham performed Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in Urbana, Ill.

• Smile Politely: "... the orchestra’s rendition of Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2 exploded with anxiety and dynamism. Led by Gil Shaham’s resolutely physical solo violin, the Bartók piece rearranged the mood of the evening considerably."

Eric Gratz performed Kurt Weill’s Concerto for Violin and Wind Orchestra with the San Antonio Symphony.

• MySanAntonio: "The Weill, from 1925, is a sophisticated, complex work. The music took severe angles and sounded on edge, as if walking dangerously close to a cliff. But Gratz was in complete control, playing with the purest of tones."

Viktoria Mullova performed Bach's A minor Violin Concerto with the Academy of Ancient Music.

• The Times: "Once a star of big concert halls playing the big romantic concertos, in recent years Mullova has recast herself as an intense, if emotionally austere, baroque specialist. She still stands out from the players of the AAM like a cheetah in a field of gazelle."

Glenn Dicterow and Eiko Kano performed Bach’s Concerto in D minor for Two Violins with Pegasus: The Orchestra.

• New York Classical Review: "(Conductor) Hakobyan led a bracing, rhythmically alive rendering of the opening Vivace, with Dicterow giving a master class in poised execution and natural phrasing that fellow soloist Kano and the other players did their best to match."

Midori Seiler performed Haydn's Violin Concerto No 1 with the Australian Haydn Ensemble.

• Limelight: "Against robust strings, Seiler revealed a singing high register and biting low, delivering elegantly shaped phrases and assured virtuosity. She brought a pure sound, with plenty of heat at its core, to the soulful melodies of the Adagio, over the orchestra’s pizzicati – not to mention a spacious, thoughtful cadenza – before dispatching a sparkling finale."

Please support music in your community by attending a concert or recital whenever you can!