{"id":46379,"date":"2017-07-18T05:34:40","date_gmt":"2017-07-18T09:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=46379"},"modified":"2017-07-18T22:29:02","modified_gmt":"2017-07-19T02:29:02","slug":"scrutiny-violinist-james-ehnes-wows-in-solo-toronto-summer-music-recital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/07\/18\/scrutiny-violinist-james-ehnes-wows-in-solo-toronto-summer-music-recital\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Violinist James Ehnes Wows In Solo Recital"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"James
James Ehnes (Photo: Benjamin Ealovega)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Violinist James Ehnes. Toronto Summer Music Festival. Koerner Hall. July 17.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Canadian violinist James Ehnes gave the sort of solo recital on Monday night that people will be talking about for a long time to come. In short, it was the sort of concert where the star musician sets up a series of challenges he then not only met, but surpassed.<\/p>\n

Ehnes\u2019s already long and starry career has been built on superlatives\u2014and his latest performance proved they are all deserved. One man with one violin, alone on the stage, held his audience in a thrall in a program of works by J.S. Bach, Eug\u00e8ne Ysa\u00ffe, and the premiere of a commission from Canadian composer Barrie Cabena.<\/p>\n

Bach was represented by his first and second Partitas for solo violin, the second one containing the famous Chaconne in D minor<\/em>, one of the most emotionally arresting pieces of non-Romantic music ever written. Ehnes also played the Largo movement from the Third Violin Sonata as an encore, having found exactly the right piece to follow the devastating Chaconne<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Ehnes\u2019s technique is phenomenal, and, as a bonus, he makes it look so very easy\u2014perhaps too easy, belying the physical, intellectual and emotional effort he put into his interpretations. Every note was placed just so, his bowing was flawless, and it often sounded as if the bow were made out of silk, not horsehair. There was a wide range of dynamic modulation, and his ornamentation was ever so tasteful.<\/p>\n

In this age where period performance practice informs Baroque music, these were solidly modern interpretations, complete with use of vibrato and long, legato bowing, but it all worked as an impeccably crafted whole.<\/p>\n

Ysa\u00ffe provided an early 20th–<\/span>century virtuoso\u2019s response to Bach\u2019s masterpieces. Ehnes delivered an emotionally charged, high-definition rendition of Ysa\u00ffe\u2019s Sonata No. 3 in D minor. It was a model of how this piece should be interpreted: heart on sleeve, but without any blood puddling around the violinist\u2019s feet.<\/p>\n

Cabena\u2019s Sonatina No. 4, subtitled \u201cIn Homage to J.S. Bach\u201d was outclassed by the other two composers\u2019 ingenious tricks to simulate harmony and counterpoint for an instrument designed to speak in a single voice, but it was still a tidy, neatly structured showcase of Ehnes\u2019s virtuosity.<\/p>\n

Technique and polish is nothing without deep musicality. Ehnes gave us the whole package in a recital that made the music immediate, speaking to us as if directly from the composer\u2019s pen. One can\u2019t ask for better.<\/p>\n

For more REVIEWS, click\u00a0HERE<\/u><\/a><\/span>.<\/h3>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Ehnes mounts a one-man show, rendered in “high-definition” for the Toronto Summer Music Festival audience. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,76,19,52,58,59,63],"tags":[435,798,857,1666,2298,5985,3357,3498],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/01\/148-James-Ehnes-c-B-Ealovega.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-c43","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46379"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46393,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46379\/revisions\/46393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46379"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=46379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}