Friday 9 December 2005

Concert yesterday evening (Bournemouth) with Yan Pascal Tortelier conducting the BSO (Vaughan Williams fourth symphony -- very good).

Hagai Shaham played the Tchaikovsky violin concerto. A work I've heard before ... many times. I've never rated Hagai particularly highly before, but he went for broke in the Tchaikovsky, and it really worked. No seeking out the mysterious depths, or highlighting intellectual profundities. He just swept into, and through, the music like a mini tornado. British audiences never, never applaud between movements. But the audience (with me in the vanguard) broke into spontaneous applause after the first movement, and it really would have been criminal not to.

In my view, the only way to play this barnstorming, echt-romantic concerto. Hagai has gone right up in my rating system.

No comments: