Tuesday's Salomon Concert

We went to the concert by the Salomon Orchestra on Tuesday at St. John's Smith Square, London. Conducted by Mark Forkgen, the orchestra played the overture to Wagner's Die Meistersinger, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto and Sibelius's 1st Symphony.

The violinist in the Tchaikovsky was Thomas Gould, a young man who has only recently graduated from the Royal Academy of Music but who has a something of a future ahead of him. His performance of the Tchaikovsky was fabulous, he made short work of the taxing virtuoso passages, particularly the notorius string crossing. He and Mark Forkgen worked well as a team so the orchestra provided fine support and there were few, if any, moments of instability between soloist and orchestra (again, something of a problem in the work if the soloist is inclined to be wayward.). After the interval there was a fine performance of the Sibelius; I was going to say rousing, but thought Forkgen and the orchestra created some glorious moments the general atmosphere was of something far more subtly troubling.

It is quite some years since I have heard the Tchaikovsky and even longer since hearing the Sibelius. It was rather pleasant to revist the works live, especially in such confident performances.