Spanish Premiere of the MacMillan Violin Concerto in Valladolid 20&21 April 2012
Vadim Repin - Orch Sinf.Castilla y Leon - Vasily Petrenko
Having missed the London Premiere of the MacMillan violin concerto in 2010, I had to go to the Spanish Premiere and hear it two nights in a row in Valladolid (it’s only one hour North of Madrid). The Auditorio Miguel Delibes built in 2007 has a seating capacity of over 1700, and it was nearly full on both nights.
First impression was the energy coming out of the music. I can guarantee you won’t fall asleep at this concert! I was impressed by the young but experienced conductor, Vasily Petrenko, whose left hand I found most expressive at shaping the music for the orchestra. This concerto demands soloist and conductor in excellent ‘athletico’ physical condition , and a violin ready for all the virtuosic challenges MacMillan put into this music he wrote for Vadim Repin: use of the whole fingerboard, high register, harmonics, double stops , left hand pizzicato etc..
Listen to the London interview with MacMillan and the interview with Vadim Repin about this concerto. You might also find interesting the range of percussion instruments used in this concerto.
See here the scoring and the Composer's notes.
In the first movement, ‘Dance’ the violin solo is involved straight away. ‘Strepitoso, extrovert, crazily to explosive’ are some of the MacMillan’s directions on the score.
The second movement, Larghetto ‘semplice ma con amore’, has more adjectives like ‘capriccioso, pleading, delicato, playfully and virtuosic’ to describe just what you hear.
I found the ‘estatico’ warm passage very beautiful and the ‘semplice, child like folksy dancing’ struck a chord as the tune came to me. MacMillan says it’s a tune from childhood. It’s known to Irish people as “Sì Bheag sì Mhor”
The third movement starts ‘ben marcato e ritmico’ with male voices saying German words “Eins, zwei, drei, vier… meine mutter tanz mit mir” (one, two, three, four, my mother is dancing with me) and later female voices continue with “Fünf, sechs, sieben...bist du hinter das blaue Glas gegangen?” (five, six, seven, did you go behind the blue glass?)
When I asked James MacMillan about the significance of these words in the music, he answered he did not know really, it just came to him like a dream. This last movement goes on ‘sempre precipitoso, continuous, forward moving’ etc… as noted in the score. As well as the violin cadenza, I enjoyed the powerful barking brass and percussions as the orchestra rose to a final booming chord.
The audience was not disappointed and quickly acknowledged this Spanish Premiere with warm applause. Then Vadim Repin performed his favourite Paganini encore (‘Il carnevale di Venezia’) on both nights.
On the way out I was talking with a couple of people who had driven all the way from Barcelona (6 hours away) for this occasion. That’s dedication to music! They loved the concerto as well as the Rachmaninov Symphony (No2) in the second half of the concert.
I am glad I did not miss this exciting programme and wonderful performance by Vadim Repin.
