Review of the concert in Friedrichshafen (2. 4. 2009)
FROM MERRIMENT THROUGH MOURNING TO RADIANT CELEBRATION The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, which made a guest appearance in the Graf Zeppelin House on Thursday, is made up of 105 musicians. In spite of the terrible crush of people on the stage, under the light hand of its principal conductor Vladimír Válek the orchestra played together as though cast from a single mould. The violin soloist Sophia Jaffé was an experience in itself.
With its programme, the Czech orchestra was in its element, starting with the overture to Bedřich Smetana's merry opera "The Bartered Bride", taking the audience directly into an endearing, natural, melodically vibrant piece with a popular appeal. The orchestra handled the playing of the contrasts sensitively, at times piano, at times forte, allowing the sound to build up, passing it on from the strings to the wind instruments, ebbing away again, and sweeping joyfully to the brilliant finale.
What a contrast to the following violin concerto no. 1 in A minor, op.77 by Dmitri Shostakovich (which was rejected by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as being too alien from the people and formalistic), with its gripping sense of drama, encompassing tragedy and destruction as well as the spirit of Jewish folk music, smiling through its pain. The basis is created by the deep strings alone; above it, the violinist sings her song of mourning at the beginning. The melancholy sound of the violin drifts away almost unheard, and yet it still hovers above the cellos and the violas, so sensitively directed by the conductor. The young Sophia Jaffé wields her bow in absolute calm, a figure of light in her shimmering white dress, and yet, what dynamic power! More consoling then is the third movement. Even though the horns and trumpets remind us of the grave and judgement, the soft, quiet song of the violin rises up above the ostinato, exuding a longing which is again transformed into silent weeping. The cadence continues boldly with the fateful questioning, fluctuating between sweetness and harshness, feverish-dynamic, the turmoil of a strife-torn soul, which ends in a wild frenzy. Sophia Jaffé displayed breathtaking mastery of the violin once more with "L'Aurore", the first movement of Eugene Ysaye's Violin Sonata no. 5.
Finally, it is unnecessary to describe Antonín Dvořák's Fifth Symphony "From the New World". A colourful painting in notes, which shines out freshly on this evening, with its characteristic song from the cor anglais, but also the other brass and woodwind instruments and the wheedling sound of the strings.
A magnificent concert ended with a dynamic encore.
