A Fresh Look at a Familiar Violin Concerto
Steve Smith - The New York Times
February 21, 2010

Photo: Hiroyuki Ito, The New York Times

The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall Friday with the violinist Viktoria Mullova.

During the two concerts that the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra presented at Avery Fisher Hall last week, all eyes were fixed on the orchestra’s music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, a strikingly gifted young Canadian conductor whose international career has lately assumed a meteoric velocity. But on Friday night, in the second of the orchestra’s New York events, the Russian violinist Viktoria Mullova proved equally worthy of consideration during an uneven but fascinating account of Brahms’s Violin Concerto.

Early in her career Ms. Mullova sometimes brought a Romantic sensibility to bear in Baroque and Classical repertory. Over time she earned a sterling reputation for the keen intelligence and focused intensity of her interpretations.

Recently she has been investigating historical performance practice on record and in concert. Just over a week ago she played the Brahms concerto with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, a Bay Area period-instrument ensemble.

Here, watching Ms. Mullova play from a score, you sensed that she was thoroughly reconsidering a canonical work without having reached any firm conclusions. There was no faulting her rock-solid technique or coolly incisive tone. She was imposing in Joachim’s first-movement cadenza, gracious in the Adagio and just buoyant enough in the finale.

Mr. Nézet-Séguin, leading an appropriately scaled-down complement, was an alert accompanist, and the Rotterdam strings were mellow and warm. But Ms. Mullova’s reserve did not always mesh comfortably with Mr. Nézet-Séguin’s flair for sumptuous sound and sharp dynamic contrast, and that opposition contributed to a nervous edge throughout.

“Conciso,” a 10-minute piece for 18 players by the contemporary Dutch composer Theo Verbey, opened the concert’s second half with a bustle of fidgeting strings, driving rhythms and tart Stravinskian wind voicings. But only in the final work on the program, Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, did Mr. Nézet-Séguin and the Rotterdam players hit the assured stride demonstrated throughout their Wednesday night performance.