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.Leonidas Kavakos performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti at Carnegie Hall.Leonidas Kavakos performed Tchaikovskys Violin Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
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Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Photo by Marco Borggreve.
Patricia Kopatchinskaja performed Fazil Say's Violin Concerto "1001 Nights in the Harem" with the London Symphony Orchestra.Clik here to view.
Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Photo by Marco Borggreve.
- The Guardian: "Terrific fun, its atrociously difficult for the soloist, and was an absolute tour de force for Kopatchinskaja, who was exacting in her negotiation of Says rhythmic complexities and ravishing in moments of lyricism, living the music as is her wont, and dancing her way through it at times."
- Arts ATL: "For all of Woods onstage grandiosity, he is still a transcendent instrumentalist....He uses layers of wah pedal and other effects normally reserved for the electric guitar but never at the cost of melodic clarity. The combination leaves him open to dazzle with flying fingerwork or devastate the senses with walls of distortion while never going off the rails into either extreme."
- Buffalo Rising: "...she knows her way around a fiddle. Good thing, because the exciting 1953 Violin Concerto by Hungarian émigré (known to many as a Hollywood composer) Miklós Rózsa was all over the fingerboard."
- New York Classical Review: "The soloist played with pinpoint intonation even in the most gnarly passages, admirably flowing but not glib, taking care to illuminate each theme and incident in the long first movement."
- Limelight: "Bell stood to perform the solo part and direct the orchestra, all from memory. And here we got to sample his famously sweet tone. His sound, using minimal vibrato, is of the kind often called silvery; so appropriate for the Mendelssohn Concerto with its exposed high harmonics."
- The Spokesman-Review: "From the first measures of the piece, Wolskis full-bodied tone and scrupulous phrasing made it plain that we were not simply to be borne aloft on wings of song, but allowed to witness passionate engagement with Mendelssohns thrice-familiar masterpiece."
- The Arts Desk: "Roberto Ruisi brings formidable technical virtuosity to his role as well as the kind of sweetness and lyricism which now distinguish the orchestras strings as a whole, and this concerto gave him the chance to shine in all those qualities."
- San Francisco Classical Voice: "...the extravagantly gifted Leonidas Kavakos paired formidable technique with adroit phrasing, a supple muscular tone, and interpretive freshness, all of it tightly bound to a splendid performance by the orchestra."
- Arts Knoxville: "The...Concertmaster Series as hosted by Concertmaster William Shaub has always enjoyed displaying its dual personality of virtuosic violin showmanship contrasted with deep dives into the heart of the major chamber ensemble repertoire....its mid-week concerts....happily embraced that scheme."
- The Dallas Morning News: "Monday evenings elegantly paired works represented large-scale farewells from two of the greatest composers of string quartets."
- Washington Classical Review: "On Sunday afternoon the German piano quartet did its namesake proud"
- The Week in Reviews, Op. 419: Joshua Bell, Two-Set Violin, Clara-Jumi Kang
- The Week in Reviews, Op. 418: Ilya Gringolts; Leonidas Kavakos; Carolin Widmann
- The Week in Reviews, Op. 417: Anne Akiko Meyers, Aubree Oliverson, Vilde Frang
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