Two masterworks for the price of one

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This article was published 15/09/2024 (411 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“It’s good to be home,” internationally renowned, Brandon-born violinist James Ehnes told 1,885 audience members prior to his encore Saturday night.

The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s inaugural concert of its 2024-25 season felt indeed like a homecoming as well as celebration of musical ties that bind, with the much beloved artist performing two works on violin and viola led by maestro Daniel Raiskin.

Ehnes scarcely needs any introduction — and especially for his legion of fans who whooped and cheered for their hero throughout the evening. Now based in Naples, Florida, the multi-award winning musician who made his orchestra debut with L’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal at age 13 continues to crisscross the globe as a soloist, chamber musician and conductor, in addition to leading his own Ehnes Quartet and the Seattle Chamber Music Society, among others.

He’s also famously humble with a naturally warm stage presence; often beaming at the maestro and his musicians, or graciously acknowledging the audience’s applause throughout the 147-minute (including intermission) evening.

Brahms’s lone Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77, composed in 1878 for his violinist friend and colleague, Joseph Joachim, provided the first taste of Ehnes’s impeccable artistry, including his honey-sweet tone on his priceless 1715 “Marsick” Stradivarius violin, and dazzling virtuosity matched equally by laser intonation. An early highlight became his interpretation of Joachim’s own cadenza during the opening movement Allegro non troppo, in which Ehnes plumbed the depths of his fiddle, before tossing off a series of gossamer-light trills and fearless multiple-stops in this cornerstone of the solo violin repertoire. The subsequent Adagio further displayed his innate lyricism as well as simpatico partnership with Raiskin, with the latter’s sweeping gestures giving full voice to this unabashedly romantic work. Then it became time for the ebullient finale Allegro giocoso with the soloist punching out syncopated rhythms borne of a village peasant dance with rugged down bows, leading to a triumphant close.

Following a thunderous standing ovation including three curtain calls, Ehnes took the stage again to poignantly dedicate his encore of Eugène Ysaye’s Sonata for Solo Violin in D minor ‘Ballade’, Op. 27, No. 3 to the WSO’s “beloved concertmaster” Gwen Hoebig, who recently announced she will be stepping down from her position at the end of this season. Ehnes’s deeply felt performance of the hauntingly beautiful, one-movement solo mesmerized, while doing Hoebig justice for her remarkable 37 years of service as notably only the fourth concertmaster in the 77-year old orchestra’s history.

The second offering, Berlioz’s Harold in Italy, Op. 16 inspired by Lord Byron’s narrative poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage hasn’t been performed on this stage since 2002, then led by Joseph Silverstein featuring former WSO principal violist Daniel Scholz as soloist.

While these things can often boil down to a matter of taste, it felt a less-than-ideal programming choice for a season-opener, albeit seeing Ehnes trade in his gleaming Strad for its deeper, darker, slightly larger string cousin fascinated. Its four programmatic movements follow Harold, a young man disillusioned with a life of pleasure, as represented by the viola with its “idée fixe” theme, as he travels throughout Italy.

The curious selection, including numerous pages of orchestra tutti sections that frequently left Ehnes patiently awaiting his turn to come in, just felt plain awkward while seemingly squandering the golden opportunity of having an artist of his calibre onstage. Even Paganini, eager to show off his virtuosity on his new Stradivarius viola, initially turned down his bow at the work for the same reason before warming up it a few years later. Nevertheless, some of this became forgiven during the second movement, Joy March of the Pilgrims, with Raiskin maintaining a steady pulse throughout, and finale, Orgy of the Brigands: Memories of Past Scenes, including its mysterious, off-stage string trio, that led to another ovation from the crowd. The crowd was enthralled seeing — and hearing — Ehnes’s versatile, sublime artistry shape-shift between instruments.

Last but not least, the evening opened with the WSO premiere of Swedish composer/organist Elfrida Andrée’s Concert Overture, dated 1873 with the manuscript only discovered during the 1990s, that began sluggishly before eventually footing as an ear-pleasing journey through sonic vistas.

Holly.harris@shaw.ca