Mozart
Rondo in C for Violin and Orchestra, K373
Birtwistle
Violin Concerto [Boston Symphony Orchestra commission: New York premiere]
Bartók
Violin Concerto No.2
Christian Tetzlaff (violin)
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Marcelo Lehninger
Reviewed by: Gene Gaudette
Reviewed: 15 March, 2011
Venue: Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall, New York City
Christian Tetzlaff is one of the most adventurous and interesting first-rank violinists around. Here he appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under its assistant conductor Marcelo Lehninger, who replaced the indisposed James Levine.
Tetzlaff’s playful and charming approach to Mozart’s Rondo was immediately winning, despite accompaniment that was too texturally thick, a dynamic degree too loud, and sometimes a bit ragged in execution — a dispiriting contrast to the unanimity the Bostonians have been delivering in the last few years under Levine.
Things went quite a bit better in the Bartók, though I was caught off-guard by Tetzlaff’s gentler handling of the first movement’s opening theme, conveyed with more cantabile and less rhythmic force than most violinists bring to it. Lehninger also conjured more warmth than one normally expects from this opening theme and in each of its reappearances – after the initial shock, this completely different and welcome character to the opening movement provided plenty of rhythmic energy in the contrasting themes along with more than a touch of Hungarian gypsy phrasing. Tetzlaff emphasized tenderness and passion in the second movement, which often seems brooding and melancholy, and the orchestra sounded the best of the evening; the finale yielded playful, virtuosic playing from all.