The Week in Reviews, Op. 246: Veronika Eberle; Karen Gomyo; Itzhak Perlman

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.Veronika Eberle performed the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

• Atlanta Journal Constitution: "In her Atlanta debut, 28-year-old Eberle unpacked an interpretation of the concerto full of crystal-clear high notes and scorching technical passages. Her first-movement cadenza, which is crowded with a complex series of interlocking melodic leaps and jumps, was smooth, unhurried and precise."
• ArtsATL.com: "Violinist Veronika Eberle was totally on fire in her debut appearance with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Thursday night, wowing the audience with her superb performance of the Violin Concerto of Johannes Brahms."

Karen Gomyo performed Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the San Francisco Symphony.

• San Francisco Chronicle: "Shostakovich’s expansive lines of thought, which can often seem discursive and even meandering in the wrong hands, emerged here with a welcome sense of formal tautness; the composer’s acrid sensibilities sounded inviting without losing their essential character."
• San Francisco Classical Voice: "It was a revelation. From the first notes of the reflective Nocturne, Gomyo played like a chamber musician; it was the kind of quietly excellent, self-assured musicianship that commanded stillness from the audience."

Itzhak Perlman performed Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the DePaul Symphony Orchestra in the new Mary Patricia Gannon Concert Hall at Holtscheider Performance Center.

• Chicago Tribune: "Perlman, of course, was the main draw, and his reading of Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 sounded fresh and emotionally intense, though it has been a Perlman signature for decades. Gannon Concert Hall served him well, enabling the violinist to play with a degree of intimacy one sooner expects to encounter in a recital."

Andrew Sords performed Mendelssohn's D-minor concerto for the Mendelssohn String Symphonies project.

• clevelandclassical.com: "Sords was technically brilliant, playing with plenty of panache, while Ellis’s phrasing was spot-on. The slow movement swung to major, except for minor excursions perfectly executed by Sords, especially the mournful cadenza. The continuously spinning finale beautifully showed off the soloist, and ended this effective concerto with conviction."

Felicity James performed Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto last movement with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra.

• South Bend Tribune: "For a young musician still in an early stage of her concert career, she showed astounding poise and depth, refraining from hamming up the emotions of the melodies or overplaying the score’s fiendish technical demands."

The Silesian Quartet performed at the Chicago Philharmonic's "Poland 2018" festival:

• Chicago Classical Review: "The Silesian Quartet’s magisterial playing encompassed all of these variegated elements—the stomping dance rhythms, plaintive searching fragments and Bartokian harmonic dissonance. The Polish musicians displayed airtight technical security, sweetly burnished string tone and hair-trigger intensity—qualities they brought to every work on the program."

Stéphane Tétreault performed Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor with the the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra.

• Saskatoon Star-Phoenix: "The 25-year-old, who plays a 311-year-old Stradivarius, showcased his impeccable skills and his responsiveness to the colourful music."

And from last Sunday, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Renaud Capuçon perform the second movement from Ravel’s Violin and Cello Sonata at the base of the Arc de Triomphe as part of the ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One.