[LJ2ME] Pagan(ini) Sacrifice
Being groupies of his, dontlikeyou and I weren't about to miss out on Jin Li performing solo with the SSO, all the more so when it was FOC - a "rush hour" concert as styled by the organisers. The star vehicle was Paganini's 1st Violin Concerto, a work teeming with technical difficulties from start to end. Based on his performance of the composer's 2nd Violin Concerto last year, Jin Li was more than capable of despatching the demands of the work.
However, it wasn't a smooth ride for the soloist as he audibly struggled from the onset, taking the music a tad slower than this pair of ears was accustomed to. Absent from his reading was the ease and fluidity of execution so vital for the work, a throwback to the composer's legendary mastery of his art. While his instrument sang out in the lyrical passages with warmth of tone and brightness of sound, Jin Li failed to deliver with the host of other challenges in the score. His ricochet bowing smudged and smeared the music line, his left-hand pizzicato was indistinct and weak and his cadenza was hesitant and laboured. Most appalling was the high harmonics in the final movement where he was off tone for bars on end, and it was as agonising for the audience as it must have been for him as he faltered again and again in trying to find his fingering.
It would be a potentially embarrassing situation if the same were to happen on tour next week. Hopefully it was just a case of nerves acting up, for who can blame him when the audience was as unappreciative and uneducated as the one this evening. Bringing classical music to the masses is commendable, but please let's restrict it to the outdoor performances where the audience are wont to eat and talk and walk around...
However, it wasn't a smooth ride for the soloist as he audibly struggled from the onset, taking the music a tad slower than this pair of ears was accustomed to. Absent from his reading was the ease and fluidity of execution so vital for the work, a throwback to the composer's legendary mastery of his art. While his instrument sang out in the lyrical passages with warmth of tone and brightness of sound, Jin Li failed to deliver with the host of other challenges in the score. His ricochet bowing smudged and smeared the music line, his left-hand pizzicato was indistinct and weak and his cadenza was hesitant and laboured. Most appalling was the high harmonics in the final movement where he was off tone for bars on end, and it was as agonising for the audience as it must have been for him as he faltered again and again in trying to find his fingering.
It would be a potentially embarrassing situation if the same were to happen on tour next week. Hopefully it was just a case of nerves acting up, for who can blame him when the audience was as unappreciative and uneducated as the one this evening. Bringing classical music to the masses is commendable, but please let's restrict it to the outdoor performances where the audience are wont to eat and talk and walk around...