Updates: Composers and Violinists

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Richard Termine for The New York Times

In a couple of previous posts I mentioned conductor Lorin Maazel violinist Julia Fischer (albeit in separate posts). Vivien Schweitzer of the New York Times gives a review of their joint perfomance on Tuesday.

The review speaks highly of Ms Fischer, "(she) plays with a remarkably sweet tone (evoking melting caramel perhaps) and long, refined phrases that have an operatic quality to them. She played the Mozart with expressive introspection in the Adagio and plenty of spirit in the Gypsy-tinged Rondo. Mozart did not write a cadenza for this concerto, so Ms. Fischer wrote her own, a highly effective piece featuring a dialogue between the upper and lower strings."

Although the review was not skathing for Mr Maazel, it did say, "Mr. Maazel doesn’t seem to have been particularly influenced by historically informed Baroque styles...Mr. Maazel effectively conveyed the stately dignity of this work (despite a few unstately horn blunders), which more closely resembles Bach’s earlier orchestral suites than the later “Brandenburg” Concertos. But for ears attuned to the leaner, crisper and more buoyant sound now associated with Bach, the performance sometimes sounded stodgy."

Yet again an example where the conductor plays an important role. While the performer does a wonderful job, the performance was not as sparkling as it could have been. Looking at the picture above it seems one was excited to be there, the other would rather be somewhere else.

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