Violinist’s performance worthy of standing ovation

The Spokane Symphony, spurred on by its violinist soloist Leila Josefowicz, produced one of the outstanding performances of any season Friday at the Opera House.

It is not common for a Spokane audience to rise to its feet following any unfamiliar work, but the standing ovation following Josefowicz’s performance of Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 was immediate and well-justified. Though its 35-minute length provides both soloist and orchestra with plenty of challenges, this concerto is anything but a crowd-pleasing display piece. Much of its demand- ing music is slow and quiet.

But from her elegiac playing of the opening Nocturne, Josefowicz established a firm grip on the attention of the audience and a vibrant relationship with the conducting of Eckart Preu and the playing of the orchestra.

Shostakovich completed this concerto when he was in a dark period of one of his denunciations by Stalin’s artistic henchmen. The work is loaded with anguish, frustration, anger and ultimately, revenge. Several elements made Friday’s performance of this demanding concerto a magnificent achievement.

First, the control Josefowicz and Preu gave to the dramatic unfolding of its complex mood. Another was the soloist’s uninhibited physical involvement with the music. Classical musicians usually play it cool. Josefowicz played it hot as a rock star – from the furrowed brow of the Nocturne and the funereal Passacaglia, to the curled-lip snarl of the Scherzo.

I was most impressed by Josefowicz’s playing of the lengthy solo cadenza that serves as an eloquent introduction to the finale. The pacing of the agonizingly slow beginning to its explosion of high-octane virtuosity was gripping. The balance between orchestra and soloist throughout show what a masterful orchestrator Shostakovich was, particularly in the way he used the lower woodwinds and strings to leave the soloist floating high above the orchestral texture.

Preu opened Friday’s concert with Tchaikovsky’s symphonic fantasy based on Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” Though not as popular as the composer’s “Romeo and Juliet,” the same kinds of characterization are here. The murmur of the sea rising to a storm at Prospero’s command to Ariel, the love music of Ferdinando and Miranda, and the ultimate triumph of love and reason over revenge and magic. Preu made a good case for this work.

Following intermission, the orchestra turned in an exciting performance of Witold Lutoslawki’s Concerto for Orchestra. Some in the audience, thinking they had paid their homage to the unfamiliar, did not return. It was their loss. Lutoslawski’s Concerto, itself a homage to Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, is a grand display piece that uses Polish folk song along with a wild variety of spectacular effects, which give full rein to every section of the orchestra.