On March 17, Seattle Symphony premiered Aaron Jay Kernis’ Violin Concerto with guest soloist James Ehnes performing the stamina-challenging work. Melinda Bargreen of observed, “…Lengthy, complex and assertive, the new concerto demands almost superhuman agility and stamina of the soloist for whom it was written… The new concerto is a huge work…Dotted with cadenzas that put the soloist back in the forefront, the concerto demonstrated Kernis’ command of the complete orchestral palette, from cataclysmic brass passages to otherworldly solo harmonics over hushed strings. He made imaginative and inventive use of percussion, harp and tuba. And in the wildly eclectic third movement, Kernis pushed the soloist toward the frontiers of technique, with double-stop runs and a final cadenza so scarily difficult that audience members were gasping in disbelief.
Read the complete review here.