Friday, June 02, 2006

I must digress from jazz for the moment to classical....last night I saw maybe the best performance in the last few years at the TSO concert. ( I know I am prone to superlatives...but I actually stood up for a standing o...) Unfortunatly I dont know anything about the piece of music or the violinist or the conductor...They are Maxim Vengerov on violin, conducted by Andrey Boreyko performing Shostokovitch's Violin Concerto # 1 which I understand to be written in the late forties in the Stalin ruled soviet republic.... The piece was haunting grim and at the end almost maniacle...but in parts it is very minimalist with solo parts for various instruments including Vengerov of couse. The contrast of Vengerov playing solo and then the orchestra kicking in was dynamic. He played the instrument with much macho vigour which seemed appropriate...in short he plyed the shit out of it but it still was in control not ....missed or squeeked stinging. Boreyko was working the TSO like I have never seen , fascially and with his hands indicating too load or too quiet or gently etc...at times to various sections of the orchestra, Ive never seen that to such a degree before, but they responded.....anyway a quick web search didnt give me a whole lot to go on , do any of you know much about Vengerov or the concerto or Boreyko??

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