George Rothman leading the Riverside Symphony, with Tim Fain on violin, on Wednesday, in their last program of the season
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI
Published: June 4, 2009
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The performance Mr. Rothman drew from the Riverside Symphony was richly colored, suspenseful and compelling. He and his players were also excellent in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1, which followed, with the brilliant young American violinist Tim Fain as soloist.
In this early work from 1917, Prokofiev takes an unconventional approach to the concerto. A breathless middle movement, a scherzo, is surrounded by two essentially slow, though deceptively stately, outer movements. The opening Andantino is a masterly exercise in writing genial music that steadily builds in agitation and activity without really increasing the tempo.
Mr. Fain brought technical finesse, lyrical ardor and cagey control to his alluring performance. He gave a rippling, zestful account of the scherzo and dispatched the streams of intricate scales and ornate passagework of the final Moderato with ease.
A hit with the audience, which nearly packed the house, this boyish virtuoso offered a sizable solo encore, “Arches.” It is a 10-minute, volatile and technically arduous work by the American composer Kevin Puts, and he played it scintillatingly.