Violinist Vadim Repin's performance with Seattle Symphony Orchestra was fun of the finest and most accomplished kind.
The many absentees from a sparsely filled Benaroya Hall on Thursday missed some fabulous fiddling and some truly grand orchestral music, masterfully played.
"Fiddling" is a frivolous term. I use it only because Lalo's "Symphonie espagnole" is no profound or exalted statement, but an entertainment piece — fun of the finest and most accomplished kind. And Vadim Repin, similarly, is no "mere" fiddler, but a violinist of the highest caliber, whose musical sensitivity matches his immaculate technique (not to mention the dignity of his stage manner).
What I found most admirable about his intoxicating performance of the Lalo was its combination of warm, perfectly centered tone and rhythmic zest with quicksilver lightness of touch. Such lightness is not easy to reconcile with coming clearly through the orchestral texture. Repin managed it perfectly, doubtless helped by Gerard Schwarz's judicious handling of the accompaniment.
Bernard Jacobson
