{"id":2119,"date":"2018-04-15T11:00:23","date_gmt":"2018-04-15T15:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dworkincompany.com\/site\/?p=2119"},"modified":"2022-01-27T20:48:10","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T01:48:10","slug":"kernis-limelight-mag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dworkincompany.com\/site\/kernis-limelight-mag\/","title":{"rendered":"Be Dazzled by a New Concerto by Kernis Composed for Violinist James Ehnes (Melbourne Symphony)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tchaikovsky 5 (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Buy Tchaikovsky and be dazzled by a new concerto by Kernis composed for violinist James Ehnes.<\/p>\n

by Tony Way\u00a0 \u00a0April 15, 2018<\/p>\n

April 13, 2018
\nHamer Hall, Melbourne<\/strong><\/p>\n

Marketing is an interesting phenomenon. Billed as \u201cTchaikovsky 5\u201d no doubt to get traditionally minded punters through the doors, this concert delivered some fine music making, but the supposed main attraction was not the highlight by any means. The night, in fact, belonged to brilliant, young Canadian violinist, James Ehnes whose dazzling performance of the Violin Concerto by Aaron Jay Kernis reconfirmed him as one of the most prodigiously talented violinists of his generation. Kernis (b. 1960) teaches at Yale and wrote the concerto for Ehnes as the result of a commission from four orchestras: the MSO, the Toronto Symphony, the Seattle Symphony and the Dallas Symphony.<\/p>\n

\"\"
James Ehnes. Photograph \u00a9 B Ealovega<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As colourful and busy as a Mambo print, Kernis\u2019s concerto (a major work that lasts about half an hour) draws deeply from the well of 20th century music. Cast in three movements, the first is a substantial Chaconne<\/em> based on a downward theme. Opening dramatically, the movement uses the full resources of a large orchestra to create a succession of vivid episodes. Kernis\u2019s love of French mid-century modern idioms is evident here and throughout the work. While he mentions Messiaen in his program note, the music of Henri Dutilleux came to my mind. Traversing various peaks and valleys, the movement builds in intensity, and after a pyrotechnical cadenza closes with a tutti chord followed by a single pizzicato note.<\/p>\n

Ballad<\/em>, the blues-inflected central movement, allowed Ehnes to contrast melting lyricism with trenchant melancholy, once again against a beautifully coloured sonic backdrop. Energetic and not without a sense of humour, the concluding Toccatini<\/em> (as the composer suggests, the name for a new martini) bubbles over with musical ideas all designed to showcase Ehnes\u2019s astounding technique. Along the way there is a tuba solo and a train whistle but the parting gift of composer to soloist is a manic, dizzying cadenza that calls upon practically every trick in the book, designed to leave the listener gobsmacked. (It certainly did me.)<\/p>\n

As for me, the real value of the evening was in hearing Ehnes play Kernis. If you have to sell it to the public like a \u201cbonus bundle\u201d with Tchaikovsky, so be it!<\/p>\n

Read the full article:<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tchaikovsky 5 (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra) Buy Tchaikovsky and be dazzled by a new concerto by Kernis composed for violinist James Ehnes. by Tony Way\u00a0 \u00a0April 15, 2018 April 13, 2018 Hamer Hall, Melbourne Marketing is an interesting phenomenon. Billed as \u201cTchaikovsky 5\u201d no doubt to get traditionally minded punters through the doors, this concert delivered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"related-artist":[16],"class_list":{"0":"post-2119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-press","8":"related-artist-aaron-jay-kernis","9":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dworkincompany.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dworkincompany.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dworkincompany.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dworkincompany.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dworkincompany.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2119"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dworkincompany.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3247,"href":"https:\/\/dworkincompany.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2119\/revisions\/3247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dworkincompany.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dworkincompany.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dworkincompany.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dworkincompany.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2119"},{"taxonomy":"related-artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dworkincompany.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/related-artist?post=2119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}