Reviews of the Mac Millan concerto dedicated to Vadim Repin and premiered in London on 12-05-2010
"On one level it's a brilliant tour de force which does everything a virtuoso could wish, combining some of the fast, furious, fiddling reels complete with signature drum the bodhrán which are in MacMillan's musical DNA with the necessary chance to let the violin sing - and how, in Repin's dazzling, pitch-perfect performance. Nothing stays the same for long, not even in the dreamlike central Larghetto, where any worries that the composer will let woodwind and soloist sit too long on sentimental songs are quickly banished by the kaleidoscopic revolution of events."
David Nice
"It was written for and played, with blinding virtuosity, by Vadim Repin who may well have answered the prayers of countless virtuosos for something new and audacious they could really play the socks off.
MacMillan always comes at music from his own Scottish perspective and this action-packed crowd-pleaser is essentially a compendium of song and dance digging deep into the primitivism of the distant past to unlock memories much closer to the present. There are dizzying, spinning reels, dirges and sentimental plaints with the violin often hauntingly evoking the "vocal" melismas of Celtic folk singers. One moment the fiddler is urging the entire string section to shake a leg, the next he's in blissful repose with piano and piping piccolo lending a tearful consonance. Wild and wacky, dark and subversive, even brutal – what isn't in the mix? The audience adored it. "
Edward Seckerson
"The three movements, 'Dance', 'Song' and 'Song and Dance' are tightly structured, and bear the hallmarks of MacMillan's style. Various percussion instruments such as marimba, vibraslap, and congos are all sensitively integrated into the orchestral colour, exceptionally realised by the LSO and neatly controlled by Valery Gergiev. The characteristically rich and expressive orchestral score bears glimpses of Bernstein, even Prokofiev, but the result is resoundingly MacMillan. Vadim Repin's unquestionable virtuosity made for a thrilling performance, yet never at the expense of the music, which is sure to become a central work of MacMillan's oeuvre."
Úna-Frances ClarkeD
"The titles of the three movements — Dance; Song; Song and Dance — give no warning of the violent rhythms within, nor the bludgeoning force of the eruptions; nor the demonic fury of the solo writing, whirling out dozens of notes a second; nor the enigmas enshrined in the piece. Why, in a stroke of nightmarish menace, does the orchestra start chanting the words of a German children’s song? What does that parodied waltz signify?"
The questions are unanswered and the tensions unresolved until the final scream of pain — a brutal collision of A minor and A major. But there were no unresolved doubts about the quality of this first performance. Vadim Repin gave an astonishing account of the solo part, which is like an unceasing torrent crashing over rocks; and Valery Gergiev steered the London Symphony Orchestra brilliantly. I just hope that other violinists and orchestras have the guts and ability to take it on."
Richard Morrison
"The Concerto is written in memory of MacMillan's late mother, and at its centre is a reminiscence of childhood in which Repin picks out the shapes of Celtic folk songs that eventually coalesce into a heart-on-sleeve melody of striking elegance. Elsewhere, however, the music is so eruptively profligate with ideas, that it occasionally loses focus. The opening movement examines the violin's role in dance bands as Repin plays furious Scottish reels in succession. The darker finale juxtaposes swirling violin figurations with both plainchant and a German nursery rhyme declaimed by the orchestral players. Staggeringly difficult, it was a tour de force for Repin, and thrillingly done by Gergiev and the LSO."
Tim Ashley
