I saw and heard Jennifer Koh's solo violin recital at Oberlin last week. It was not entirely solo as she had video accompaniment on one piece written by Esa-Pekka Salonen. This show was a nice mix of Baroque (Bach times 2), early 20th century (Ysaye) and contemporary (Carter, Saariaho and Salonen). It was also put together in a thoughtful and intelligent manner. For example, the concert opened with Bach's Partita #3 followed by Ysaye's Sonata #2. Ysaye's sonata was written for his friend and violinist Jacques Tibaud, who was obsessed with the Bach partita. Ysaye quotes the Bach to start his piece. Jennifer Koh played the Bach with great calm, upright, Apollonian, even a bit reserved. As she finished, she lifted her bow off the strings but paused without bringing her bow down and relaxing. She then launched straight into the Ysaye. It starts with the Bach quote then gets intense, impassioned. Jennifer's playing and body language mirrored this change. Knowing these pieces, I have thought it would be great to hear them together. Hearing them presented like this, without pause, I thought "Wow, that is exactly right". The Ysaye, with all of it's Dies Irae quotes was intense and beautiful, excellent contrast to Bach even forgetting the connection between the pieces.
The next two pieces were Elliot Carter's Remembering Roger and Kaija Saariaho's Nocturne in memoriam Witold Lutoslawski. Both of these pieces were written in memory of an appreciated older composer. This tie-in helped them hang together though they really were not much alike. I especially liked the Saariaho piece, introspective, difficult with unusual violin effects such as pressing "too" hard, creating a gritty sound. Saariaho's violin concerto Graal Theatre is a favorite of mine among new concertos and this piece is much in that vein.
The Salonen piece included the premiere of an abstract video accompaniment by Tal Rosner. I know the piece from Leila Josefowicz's recording and was looking forward to hearing it live. Jennifer did not disappoint though I am not able to compare her performance to the recording. The visuals really changed my experience such that I was not thinking about comparisons. The piece itself takes it's name from bit of Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire and means Laughing Unlearnt. The video did not refer to this reference but stayed abstract though with lines of varying thickness that did seem to refer to the violin strings. You probably need to see it yourself which you can do as this piece with the video is on Jennifer Koh's latest Cedille release. I do not yet have a copy as all of the discs were quickly snatched up in the lobby at intermission.
The program ended after the intermission with a bookend of Bach's quite substantial Partita #2. The Apollonian Koh was back with a brilliant performance. Having seen Jennifer Koh now twice (the first being an incredible performance of the Ligetti violin concerto in a suburban Cleveland church), I place her in the top rung of my favorite violinists, along with Hilary Hahn, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Leonidas Kavakos and Gidon Kremer. This was a great program, put together with intelligence and performed with passion and brilliance.
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