(Philippe Quint. Pic
courtesy of www.violinist.com)
Brilliant performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto by
Philippe Quint. (Review by Michael Green)
Music by 19th century composers from France, Russia and
Germany was given prolonged applause by the audience in the Durban City Hall
for the first concert of the spring season of the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra.
The high point was a brilliant performance of Tchaikovsky’s
Violin Concerto by Philippe Quint, who was born in Moscow 41 years ago and is
now an American citizen. Over the past 15 years his concert appearances in
North America and Europe and his growing number of recordings have established
his reputation as a violinist of the first rank.
The Tchaikovsky concerto is a formidable challenge,
bristling with technical difficulties. Quint handled these with a kind of
controlled verve, but what made the performance memorable was the beautiful
full tone he produced in Tchaikovsky’s haunting melodies. No doubt the
300-year-old Stradivarius violin which he plays (it is on loan to him) helps in
this respect.
His platform demeanour is also impressive, committed and
passionate but natural and without affectation.
Of course, the orchestra played a vital role in this
success. The conductor was the Bulgarian-born Rossen Milanov, another
international performer of distinction.
The orchestra opened the programme with a rousing account of
Hector Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture, one of the composer’s best
works.
And the second half of the concert was devoted to Brahms’s
massive Symphony No. 1 in C minor. Rossen Milanov is not a particularly
demonstrative type of conductor but he maintains firm control in a calm but
evocative way, and he certainly obtains the desired results.
This was an outstanding performance, with some splendid
playing from the brass and woodwind instruments.
Philippe Quint played the Tchaikovsky concerto in the Durban
City Hall eight years ago, and on that occasion I wrote that he had the elusive
magnetism called star quality. That is still true, if anything more so. - Michael
Green
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