the violinist whose bow is a sabre
Boris Belkin will rock the TCC
Attention Insurance Companies: Boris Belkin is coming to Bangkok on Nov 28, and nothing anywhere in the path of his knife-sharp bow is safe. Not the Bangkok Concert Hall, not Michael Tilkin, the conductor of the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra or any buildings in the area are liable to shake, rattle and roll.
The effects of the Russian-born Israeli-residing Belkin are almost dangerous. True, most Russian violinists, from Rostropovich to Oistrakh could shake the rafters. But the 68-year-old shaggy-haired virtuoso is in a class by himself.
This writer had heard his recordings (including the Sibelius Violin Concerto, which he will perform here), but not until one hears Belkin in person does one realise what he can do with a violin.
Conductors with whom he has performed — including Bernstein, Ashkenazy, Mehta, Maazel and Ozawa — love him and fear him in equal measure. The New York Times noted that, along with his round, strong tone, he can take his own path. In a movie he made with Leonard Bernstein, one can spot how annoyed the conductor was when Belkin simply took off with his violin, paying little heed to the orchestra.
Then again, this occurred when Belkin was in his mid-20s, his hair shoulder length, his attitude cold and sensual. Since that time, his looks have changed, but his attitude to the violin is to give it an extraordinary sound, with a passion to thrill as much as to satisfy.
His recording of the Sibelius Violin Concerto is an example of his Belkin’s singularity. One highly rated critic described the performance this way: “Boris Belkin pulls out all the stops and then some in his two-fisted rendition of the concerto. He plays with a big, gutsy tone and launches headlong into the music without a backward glance, minor virtues like subtlety and intonation be damned.”
Not that this was all to the good. That same critic told of a tone which was “brutish” and an interpretation different than that of conductor Ashkenazy.
Never mind. The conductor made a film of the performance. And while the mild-mannered Ashkenazy might have been stunned, he recognised genius when it came.
That genius came to Boris Belkin at the same time it came to Mozart. His first performance was given in Moscow at the age of seven. And for the next few years, even while studying, he was performing throughout the Soviet Union. This though was Stalin’s Soviet Union so Belkin was not allowed a visa to play abroad. When denied a chance to compete in Italy, he made his way to London, Paris and Switzerland, where he met his Belgian wife, and settled down in Liege, later settling in Israel, where he lives today.
By the time of first recording — the Paganini
Violin Concerto under the baton of Zubin Mehta in Israel — he was already an international celebrity. In Israel, the 69-year-old virtuoso is hardly a homebody. He has worked with every major orchestra in the world, in every festival, and will make his debut in Bangkok as a royal tribute to His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
The Sibelius Violin Concerto is popular not only for its masterful difficult technique (the composer himself studied violin and loathed the piano) but also its passion, its ardour and — for a fiddler like Belkin — the opportunity to draw out all the emotion.
If the Sibelius is the centrepiece of the programme, the other two works will be highly familiar in Bangkok. The Overture to Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream was composed when composer Felix Mendelssohn was 17 years old, yet has been admired for almost two centuries. Like the original Shakespeare, it is whimsical, good natured, at times dark, even mysterious, but always filled with joy.
The final work is another ever-new warhorse, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5. And this might be a challenge to Bangkok’s audience as well. Tchaikovsky did write some entertaining works, like the concertos and Nutcracker ballet. But this symphony comes from a composer whose problems — lack of inspiration, lack of confidence, sexual conflicts — were pinned onto the music. Thus, when you hear the very first theme, a clarinet solo, you may be likely to sigh and say, “C’est la vie” or “That’s life”. (Or in the Russian’s case, “This is fate”.)
Fortunately, Tchaikovsky couldn’t help his genius. And while the subject might be morbid, the composer made such morbidity exuberant and even tuneful.
Michel Tilkin, the evening’s conductor, is a familiar face in Bangkok. He first appeared here almost five years ago, with a romantic programme including Rachmaninoff and Beethoven. Last Sept 2, he conducted the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra. So the ultra-romantic Sibelius is made for his baton.
One must ask, though, where Tilkin finds the time to come here so often. Originally a virtuoso trombone player with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, he was appointed music director with the Thuringen, a post he has today. This was after a successful career with orchestras in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. His recording career with Naxos and other companies include the Dvo ák and Schumann piano concertos with Paolo Giacometti and the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra, and Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony with the Brussels Philharmonic. He has also recorded the contemporary opera Erotokritos and Areti by Yannis Markopoulos.
And while Tilkin has proven himself here before, the Boris Belkin challenge will be a daring one. Belkin’s violin bow has been compared to a sabre, so one trusts that the Belkin-Tilkin performance here will be unexpected, offbeat and unusual.