NDR Symphony Orchestra
Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor
Vadim Repin, violin
Carnegie Hall, New York.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Following the Russian violinist Vadim Repin’s performance of
Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in E minor, Op. 64,
my friend remarked to me that her benchmark for violinists
has always been (as it is for many) Jascha Heifetz, but that
Repin’s performance had come close to achieving the Heifetz
standard.
This is a bold statement, but a fair one. The thirty-six-year-old
Russian is a very different player from Heifetz, of course.
Notably, Repin plays with fire rather than with ice, as the
stoic Heifetz did. Yet he shares with the late master an
effortless, uncommon virtuosity as well as the capacity to
vacillate between romanticism and reserve. This ability was on
display as Repin launched into the cadenza of the Concerto’s
opening Allegro, bowing his double stops with abandon then
reaching into his upper register, recalling that fusion of
transparency and longing present in a Bach Partita.
Repin’s smooth, gliding tone in the Allegro stood in sharp
contrast to his coarse attack in the Andante, where he
leaned dramatically into phrases. The final movement,
Allegretto, was casual, with the violinist pushing the NDR
(North German Radio) Symphony Orchestra to the edge of the
beat, sliding through runs (not offensively but affably),
and enjoying himself. The bravos subsided only after Repin’s
fourth curtain call, which he easily earned.
The NDR, for its part, played Mahler’s “Titan” Symphony,