Philadelphia Orchestra: Charles Dutoit, conductor, with Vadim Repin, violinist, in James MacMillan’s new Violin Concerto at Carnegie Hall., March 1st, 2011.
Photo by Daniel Barry
The concerto, a 25-minute work in three movements, adheres loosely to historical conventions of form: a crackling opening movement (“Dance”) is followed with a more lyrical section (“Song”) and a finale filled with exuberant display (“Song and Dance”). The solo part’s torrential flurries and sweetly spun melodies are custom fitted to a virtuoso like Mr. Repin, to whom the work is dedicated. Mr. MacMillan’s estimable mastery of orchestral timbre and effect is evident throughout. Composed in memory of Mr. MacMillan’s mother, who died in 2008, the concerto derives its considerable emotive impact from graceful and grotesque elements juxtaposed with a dreamy illogic. A bubbly Scottish reel breaks out at the first movement’s climax. In the second, the winsome solo lines flutter over elegiac oboe, guttural brass and dreamy, tuned percussion; a tender passage for piccolo and piano conjures an Irish folk song.
Tougher to parse is a finale that opens with a gesture Mr. MacMillan has ascribed to his dreams : over a stolid timpani tread the orchestra’s men chant, “Ein, zwei, drei, vier: Meine Mutter, tanz mit mir.” (“One, two, three, four: my mother, dance with me.”) Brass shrieks, vivacious dance rhythms and a lurid waltz parody ensue; an amplified female speaker, unseen, precedes a final solo cadenza and hammering final flourish.
However wayward the concerto might have seemed in a first listening, Mr. Repin’s unshakable bravura and the orchestra’s magnificent playing made a compelling case for it. Audience response was rousing and sustained.
Steve Smith for The New York Times
