Valentina Peleggi conducting
with James Ehnes, violin
Nov. 2, Carpenter Theatre, Dominion Energy Center
The Canadian violinist James Ehnes is fast becoming one of the leading interpreters of an unusually wide range of classical repertory – you name it, he probably plays it, on violin or viola, masterfully.
In the latest program in the Richmond Symphony’s mainstage Symphony Series, Ehnes demonstrated his mastery of two romantic standards, Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major and Eugène Ysaÿe’s Sonata No. 3 in D minor (“Ballade”).
The Brahms concerto, written for (and with significant input from) the Hungarian virtuoso Joseph Joachim, is a tricky balancing act, in which brilliant tone and high-flying technique – all but obligatory in late-19th century violin showpieces – garnish music rooted in soulful lyricism and expressed with classical poise.
Ehnes coaxed from his 1720 Stradivari consistently silvery, singing tone and phrasing of gratifying nuance in the first two movements of the concerto, organically blending his tone with that of the strings in the opening allegro, nicely balancing the fiddle’s voice with that of woodwinds in the central adagio. He made an intense, borderline-gritty dance of the finale.
He raised the tonal-intensity level several notches in an encore of the Ysaÿe, the best-known of the Belgian virtuoso’s six sonatas for solo violin. The challenge here is making real music while displaying dazzling technique, and Ehnes more than met that challenge.
Valentina Peleggi, the orchestra’s music director, led attentive accompaniment in the Brahms, audibly aiming to match Ehnes’ in lyricism and expressive scope. Her efforts, however, were undermined by a brass choir, looming over the rest of the orchestra on high risers, chronically overbalancing strings and sounding more glaring than brilliant – at least from the perspective of a balcony seat. The same imbalance could be heard in Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 in G major, which concluded the program.
The Dvořák Eighth, one of the most tuneful and perhaps the most bucolic of the Czech composer’s nine symphonies, is well-upholstered in warmly lyrical string tone, and Peleggi’s concentration on the cellos’ and double-basses’ bass lines underlined that warmth. The winds’ evocations of bird calls and other echoes from nature were both atmospheric and suitably wistful.
The program opened with “Fate Now Conquers,” the contemporary American composer Carlos Simon’s propulsive mashup of snippets borrowed from Beethoven. Fateful is not the first descriptor I would choose for this brief piece. Energized with flashes of tonal brilliance is more like it, at least as Peleggi and Co. rendered it.
The program repeats at 3 p.m. Nov. 3 at the Carpenter Theatre, Dominion Energy Center, Sixth & Grace streets. Tickets: $15-$86. Details: (800) 514-3849 (ETIX); http://richmondsymphony.com
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