2024 might have been the unofficial “Year of the Violin” but this week at the Melbourne Recital Centre certainly felt like the “Week of the Violin”. Last Saturday night, we heard a riveting recital by Jack Liebeck and Kristian Chong, which included a work by Paul Dean that revealed Liebeck’s nuanced command of colour. Tuesday brought Yamen Saadi, the youngest-ever concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic, along with a Stradivarius once owned by Fritz Kreisler for a stylish account of pieces mainly composed by Kreisler. The violin week culminated in “The Heart of the Violin”, featuring a chamber orchestra of 24 string players from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the superb Canadian violinist, James Ehnes.
As the MSO’s Artist in Residence for 2025, Ehnes acted as director, soloist and designer of a program that compelled attention throughout. For those unfamiliar with American composer, Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981), her two short pieces were an exciting introduction to a composer of musical ingenuity whose work is also immediately “accessible”. Both made invigorating introductions to each half of the program.
The seven-minute high intensity Strum was originally conceived as a cello quintet written in 2006, and its evolution through string quartet to a full string ensemble can be heard clearly in the way passages for string quartet intertwine with those for the full ensemble. As quoted in the program notes, Montgomery writes, “Within Strum I used texture motives, layers of rhythmic or harmonic ostinato that string together to form a bed of sound for the melodies to weave in and out.” Strumming, pizzicato and melodies that draw upon American folk idioms did indeed conjure up the spirit of dance and movement. With first and second violins seated facing each other for the whole concert it was much easier to identify melodic lines in tutti and solo passages. There was no loss of full, rich sound in solo passages from Christopher Moore’s viola or David Berlin’s cello even from a less prominent postion. Playing without a conductor as such, section leaders took on a shared responsibility, with other players alert and responsive to all musical gestures from the first quiet solo pizzicato viola note to the final decisive plucked note from the whole ensemble.
Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4 in D, K218 is possibly his most popular. In her pre-concert talk, MSO cellist, Michelle Wood, described hearing it endlessly in practice rooms as she was studying. It is no accident that it was the choice of two of the three finalists last month for the prestigious Dorcas McClean Travelling Scholarship for violinists, which was won by one of those two. Michelle Wood assured us that James Ehnes brings something fresh and new to this violin staple. And he did. Standing centre stage he conducted while not playing and led the chamber ensemble – this time with the addition of two horns and two oboes – with the musical expressiveness of his playing. Technically masterful, elegant and unaffectedly stylish, Ehnes inspired the MSO players to produce as committed and involved sense of ensemble as you could wish to hear. Complete trust between soloist and orchestra made for a most satisfying performance.
The second Montgomery work, Starburst (2012), is a four-minute burst of energy requiring precision, intensity and virtuosity, and the MSO strings recreated the galaxy altering “starburst” with all of these qualities at the highest level. The program included her description of the work as “a play on imagery of rapidly changing musical colours. Exploding gestures are juxtaposed with gentle fleeting melodies in an attempt to create a multidimensional soundscape”. Insistently repeated down strokes from the violins (think Rite of Spring) contrasted with motifs from the lower strings at the beginning, then all manner of fleeting gestures, syncopations and inventive complexities drove the work with unflagging momentum to its final decisive chord.
It is hard to believe that Dvořák composed his Serenade for Strings, Op.22 (1875) in eleven days, but much easier to believe that it became a turning point in his popularity and acceptance as a composer – in addition to improving his financial fortunes. It is a work of tremendous appeal, with the melodic allure and folk-dancing vigour that we find in his Slavonic Dances alongside poignant lyricism, notably in the Larghetto movement. Unexpectedly, the program noted only three movements, combining the first and second, and the third and fourth of what is generally regarded as a five movement work. This led to some confusion on the part of many members of the audience, who thought the work was at an end before the Larghetto. The sonorous depth of the lower strings, the viola shiver, and seamless, elastic sound that grew organically made it yet another highlight. The 24 strings also delivered shining brilliance in the first movement, introduced by the second violins and cellos. It was in this Moderato Tempo di Valse movement, with its imitative dialogue and extensive canonic repetition that the benefits of the seating arrangement were most evident as the musical conversation was easy to follow. After a vivacious Scherzo and the moving Larghetto, a dynamic Finale of fascinating contrasts in dynamics and tempi brought the Serenade to a satisfying close.
James Ehnes’ warm relationship with Melbourne audiences was evident in the prolonged applause that greeted his initial arrival on stage; the applause was even more enthusiastic and prolonged at the end of the evening as the excellence of the playing and the uplifting nature of the program were given due acknowledgement. It was a night celebrating the violin with Art and Heart.
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Heather Leviston reviewed “The Heart of the Violin: James Ehnes”, presented by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at the Melbourne Recital Centre’s Elisabeth Murdoch Hall on March 22, 2025.
