Juno-winner gives vibrant performance
James Ehnes recital Artists: James Ehnes and Andrew Armstrong Organization: The Edmonton Chamber Music Society Where: McDougall United Church When: Wednesday night Violinist James Ehnes has established himself as one of Canada’s foremost international soloists, and at 38, is just entering the age when the great violinists build on their achievements to explore new ranges of technique and tone, and new repertoire.
Indeed, his recital on Wednesday at McDougall United Church, for the Edmonton Chamber Music Society, came hot on the heels of his success at the Junos last week. He won two, for his recording of the complete Prokofiev works for violin, and for his disc of the Britten and first Shostakovich concertos.
Here, though, Ehnes opened with the Baroque. The 18th-century violinist-composer Jean-Marie Leclair was the doyen of French violin writing, prolific in output (there are 49 solo violin sonatas alone). His Op. 9, No. 3, nicknamed Tambourine, is very much music of the dance suite, but with the addition of the virtuosity that Leclair pioneered — trills, some double stopping, and very fast runs.
It is, though, dangerous music to play, for the soloist is so exposed if the technique falters. The trick is to make it sound easy, and that is what Ehnes did, releasing its vibrancy. Once could almost see the dance steps in the music.
Ehnes’ approach to Brahms’ Violin Sonata in D minor (the last of his three, completed in 1888) was to treat it unashamedly as a high point of Romantic passion. If I wouldn’t always want to hear this sonata quite so unrestrained, it nonetheless really worked.
Ehnes’ style — the marvellously rich tone, the concentration on maximum expressiveness, the notable dynamic variations in phrases and often in individual notes — suited this approach.
Indeed, the slow movement sounded like the heartfelt song of some exile, remembering a national song of a faraway land, the kind of nostalgia usually associated with Dvorak. Wonderful stuff!
American pianist Andrew Armstrong had rather let Ehnes take the limelight in the Brahms, but Alexina Louis’ new work, Beyond Time, demanded a much more equal partnership.
It is substantial, cast in three movements, all suggesting, in the composer’s words, that “the piece stands outside time, in an infinite sound world.” It was commissioned by Ehnes, and received its première last month.
The first movement (Celeste) is gorgeous, opening with bird song, and then developing into a kind of propulsive minimalist impressionism, with touches of Messiaen and even, in the piano writing, of Orff at his more astringent. Much of the writing indeed reaches into the higher celestial regions of both instruments.
The second (Eternal), opens in contrast at the bottom of the piano, with cluster chords supporting an elegiac violin line. But a series of twittering runs in the piano flies the edifice up, into the eternal — compellingly evocative music.
T he finale, Perpetual was designed to showcases Ehnes’ technique. As its title would suggest, it opens with a perpetual figure in the piano, followed by repeated arpeggios, and virtuoso repeated figures from the violin. This eventually breaks into a kind of luminous light and shadow, the violin once again elegiac, the piano with a repeated series of rising chords, both recalling the second movement.
This was the only place where the piece perhaps faltered (and one could palpably feel a lessening of the audience’s otherwise rapt attention), but the return of the now almost frenetic perpetual rush, and the final Messiaenic chords, restored the momentum.
Beyond Time confirms, if one needed any confirmation, that Alexina Louie, with her kind of 21st century impressionism, is one of the finest composers in Canada today.
Unfortunately, with a late starting concert, a very long intermission, and a deadline to meet, I could not hear the Richard Strauss sonata that ended the recital. I left with regret, as I would imagine the sonata’s combination of an almost vocal violin line (Strauss had just met his future wife, the singer Pauline de Ahna, when he wrote it) and almost Romantic concerto piano writing would have ideally suited this duo of Ehnes and Armstrong.