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Violinist Takes Bow With Beethoven

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By KURT LOFT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 29, 2008

CLEARWATER - Herculean struggles unfold this week as The Florida Orchestra wraps up its 40th season by molding together two of music's more potent creations.

There's something to be said for brazen classics, and Thursday night the musicians boldly paired masterpieces by Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms on the same stage. No one questions how orchestras need to present works of our own time, but who can resist such a compelling combo of heavyweights?

The night belonged to the Canadian virtuoso James Ehnes, a Bradenton resident who last appeared with the orchestra five years ago and spun rapture with Sibelius. This time around he tackled Beethoven's big fiddle concerto, crafting a sublime dialogue between his instrument and the orchestra.

Teaming up with music director Stefan Sanderling at Ruth Eckerd Hall, Ehnes offered a performance that began as a workman-like essay and evolved into a thing of beauty.

Unlike some concertos that feature seamless streams of melody, the Beethoven is more a patchwork of fragments and arpeggios. The challenge is to make them all flow like oil, and Ehnes was masterful in the first-movement cadenza, a tour-de-force of tremolos, double stops and scale runs that nearly pulled his violin out of tune. As the movement came to a close, Ehnes spent a good three or four minutes retuning his 293-year-old Stradivarius.

After a sweetly lyrical larghetto, Ehnes revved up the tempo and excitement with a rousing rondo that brought the audience on its feet. Ehnes came back on stage for a much-deserved encore: a scintillating rendition of the Preludio from Bach's Third Violin Partita.

If Brahms feared walking in the footsteps of his predecessor, his First Symphony shows not a note of trepidation, and it sounded warm and confident under Sanderling's controlled hand. From the ominous timpani strokes that open the work to the famed "quote" from Beethoven's Ninth in the finale, the musicians played with spirit and nuance, lighting all four movements with a rich spectrum of shades and colors.

The season's final flourishes can be heard tonight at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa; and Saturday at Mahaffey Theater, 400 First St. S., St. Petersburg; each night at 8; (813) 286-2403.

Reporter Kurt Loft can be reached at (813) 259-7570 or kloft@tampatrib.com.

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