Nicola performance reviews 2008

xcept · Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 2:04 pm Post subject: Nicola performance reviews 2008

Young phenom Nicola Benedetti lives up to the hype

Review: The Scottish violinist displays restraint and maturity, as well as impressive technique, in Irvine concert.

Surely, if you've seen one shockingly talented, preternaturally virtuosic young violinist you've seen them all. By now, classical music concert-goers have heard enough publicists' breathless praise of the latest, biggest, most technically peerless phenom to know when the hype threshold is being crossed.

Nicola Benedetti's recital at the Irvine Barclay Theatre on Tuesday night, sponsored by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, looked like a golden opportunity to indulge such doubts indiscriminately. After all, the 20-year-old Scot has been given the full Second Coming treatment by the press, from U.K. critics' "absolutely electrifying" and "glass-shattering perfection" to "exquisite, breathtaking" in the U.S. What were the odds such verbiage was justified?

Striding unceremoniously into the Chaconne from Bach's Partita No. 2 in D Minor (BWV 1004) Benedetti impressed immediately with the clean, big-toned power of her Earl Spencer Stradivarius. It was tempting to give her instrument much of the credit for the fluid, penetrating ribbon of sound she produced, but that didn't explain the engaging warmth and naturalness of her Bach or the way it held one's attention well past the 40th or 50th variation. Nor could it account for her dead-certain intonation and decisive articulation. Something else was going on here.

What it was began to become clearer in Brahms's Sonata No. 3 in D Minor (opus 108), which Benedetti, joined by able accompanist Alexei Grynyuk, gave a sweet, autumnal, even melancholic color rather than the juiced-up Romanticism or over-muscular extroversion you might have expected from a young violinist with something to prove. Other players may have Benedetti's technical command, and her Brahms third movement may have been a bit too literal, but what set her apart was an even-tempered maturity, an assured ability to avoid both over-intellectualized exactness and overheated emotionalism. Though not an introspective or retiring player, she stayed within herself, as if she were enjoying her own sound too much to worry whether it was projecting or "connecting."

Yet Benedetti could serve up thrilling playing, as in the first movement crescendo of Ravel's Sonata in G major, and extraordinary intensity, as in the same piece's bluesy second movement. Still, the overriding feeling her music produced was of self-possessed calm, a relaxed poise that hid the concentration, precision, and well-judged rightness of her music-making behind an appearance of effortless economy.

After the relatively unfamiliar Ravel Sonata launched the program's second half, Benedetti tackled two pieces more commonly associated with young phenoms showing off their chops: Saint-Saëns' Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso in A minor and Ravel's "Tzigane." If the former continually threatened to dissolve into ear candy, Benedetti's beautiful, always centered tone was hardly the reason. And if her "Tzigane" fell short of full bowhair-flying bravado, the laser focus of her sound and the sense that she understood the piece's "long line" – and chose to respect it – vindicated her style all the more. After bringing the crowd to its feet, Benedetti sent them home with a well-gauged "Meditation" from Massenet's opera "Thaïs." Sometimes, it seems, publicists' hype is right on the money.

Source: OC Register

xcept · Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 11:28 pm Post subject:

Professional violinist charms audience at Raitt Recital Hall
Review - The musical passion that flowed from professional musician Nicola Benedetti’s violin at Raitt Recital Hall on Sunday was an inspiration to all who heard. The notes showered the audience and enabled them to find a key, even for a moment, to the heart of classical music.

“Nicola masterfully played the violin,” said freshman Daniel Dugger. “Her passion and beauty resonated through the hall with an array of strong, angelic notes in a way that I have never heard before.”

Benedetti has played violin since she was 5 years old and admits she started only because her older sister played. Thanks to her sister’s influence, she continued playing and was named BBC’s Young Musician of the Year in 2004.

The 20-year-old violinist has performed with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of St. Martins at the Fields, and with the City of London Symphony on a tour of China. That is naming just a few of the places she has gone. However, she didn’t predict she would win such great awards.

“I’ve never been a big fan of competition,” Benedetti said. “I went to very few competitions when I was young because my parents are complete non-musicians and didn’t really know how best to educate me musically.”

Beginning Sunday’s concert with Bach’s complex “Chaconne” from Partita No. 2 in D minor, Benedetti exhibited with no hesitation her true love and talent for playing the violin. She memorized this 13-minute piece and played with such fervor and accuracy that it easily elicited dramatic emotions from each individual in the room.

“The music conveyed so many emotions it was difficult to focus on simply one feeling,” Dugger said.

Through her sweet notes and swaying body, she has an abstract sort of conversation with her audience. She claimed she is trying to communicate “something emotional, something nurturing as opposed to impressive.”

Benedetti admits to practicing an average of four to five hours a day, eight hours being the maximum. As well as practicing on her own, she does have a mentor who she looks to for advice.

“I’m studying with a guy who teaches in Vienna, Austria, but I only see him maybe once a month, if that,” she said. “Even if it’s an opinion you disagree with, it makes you confirm what you feel about the music just to have someone opposing you.”

“Also to have another pair of ears, when you’re attached to this thing under your neck all the time it’s very difficult to get another perspective on it.”

After she gracefully finished her last piece, “Tzigane” by Ravel, the audience demanded an encore. She granted the wishes of the crowd and soothed them with a gentle, yet adamant piece called “Meditation” by Thais.

Her performance received numerous amounts of positive reactions. Freshman Jared LaGroue greatly enjoyed Benedetti’s performance.

“From a creative perspective, her interpretation and relation of the classics inspire a deep emotional element,” LaGroue said. “Benedetti is fantastic at bringing a new found excitement to an enduring genre.”

For such a young musician, Benedetti has accomplished more than the average 20-year-old. She has developed a skill of performing, which doesn’t only mean learning what to play, but how to play and accurately deliver a meaningful recital.

“You’re kind of on a journey and in a bit of a trance [when performing]” she said. “But at the same time there are so many things to take care of all the time, with both hands, with the music, what the person you’re playing with is doing. There’s a much larger picture than just sort of getting through, note by note.”

For Benedetti, the ideal thing to focus on when performing is “what journey [she is] going on and should be bringing everybody on with [her].”

Benedetti and her deep, full sounding Earl Spencer Stradivarius did indeed take every person listening to her on a journey. This is exactly what she wants.

“I think people should feel that they’ve been moved and that they’ve been touched and they’ve been given something that you can’t get from anything other than music,” she said. “You can’t get it from sports or a sort of real competitive thing; this is something that should be good for people.”

Source: Graphic (Pepperdine University) Jan 08

xcept · Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 3:29 pm Post subject:

Benedetti Plays Sibelius, Symphony Hall

NICOLA Benedetti is one of the rising stars of classical music and is arguably one of the finest UK violinists.

And this opportunity to see her play Sibelius's Violin Concerto in D Major allowed her to showcase her talents as she gave us an expressive, sensitive, passionate and emotional performance.

The half-hour piece felt like just a few minutes and left us wanting for more.

Fortunately, it was followed by the instantly recognisable and wonderful Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which saw the Vienna Tonkunstler Orchestra easily moving from the sonorous opening to the more lyrical movements.

The evening was opened with Adams' Slonimsky's Earbox, a lively piece blending orchestra and piano as the music galloped and whirled.

The orchestra was conducted by Estonian Kristjan Jarvi, whose enthusiasm for the pieces and lively interchange with the orchestra ensured it was a real evening to enjoy.

Source: Birmingham Mail

xcept · Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 4:48 pm Post subject:

March 2008 Boettcher Hall - "...the young Scottish/Italian star Nicola Benedetti made her local debut. Here is a confident young violinist, ravishing in appearance, with a tone and technique to match."

Source: Rocky Mountain News

anniebee · Joined: Jan 16, 2006 Posts: 31 Location: Glasgow

As a long-standing fan of Nicola, I can verify that her live performances are both electrifying and emotional. You really do find yourself transported to another world when she plays.

It's really good to see that other countries are finding out about her and appreciate her dedication and great talent - well done, Nicola! Very Happy

Margaret. · Joined: Jan 05, 2006 Posts: 484

Well done Nicola Very Happy

xcept · Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 10:58 pm Post subject:

For the RSNO concert review from the Herald CLICK HERE

xcept · Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 11:49 am Post subject:

Benedetti adds another string to bow

Finale! Brilliant Benedetti: RSNO Festival Theatre ****
HAVING read reports of problems and subsequent cancellations, it was good to see a radiant Nicola Benedetti welcomed back to the Festival Theatre by a large audience.
The evening's programme followed an overture-concerto-symphony plan that used to be commoner than it is nowadays.

In the course of two substantial revisions of his overture, Mendelssohn tried a few different titles before settling on The Hebrides. It was the piano duet arrangement that was published as Fingal's Cave. Maestro Denève opened with a tempo which, in terms of the composer's instruction, was more moderato than allegro. There were some splendid moments. Alternation of woodwind and strings in a development of the opening theme was exemplary, and the return of the second subject was magically set off by principal clarinetist John Cushing.

Undoubtedly, because she performed Szymanowski's first violin concerto to win the 2004 Young Musician of the Year, Benedetti has come to be closely associated with it. Her account was perceptive and unfailingly musical. Szymanowski commented that there are "perhaps three or four bars" in which it is difficult to hear the solo part. All participants saw to it that there were not many more than that.

Beethoven's seventh symphony calls for exceptionally high intensity of rhythmic energy. The restless, surging impetus of the music has to be sustained for long periods. Cellos and double basses fell short of that requirement at times, and the trumpets struggled to balance their sound with players around them.

Source: The Scotsman

Margaret. · Joined: Jan 05, 2006 Posts: 484

It's good to hear Nicola is back again. Very Happy

xcept · Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 9:34 am Post subject:

On Friday, on the other side of the world, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra gave the final performance of its 2008 tour of China. All eight concerts, performed across the country in prestigious venues such as the Beijing National Centre for Performing Arts and Shanghai Concert Hall, featured Scottish violin virtuoso Nicola Benedetti, but the penultimate one, the first of two in Shenzhen Concert Hall, contained the most moving moments of the tour.

Source: The Herald
CLICK HERE for full review

xcept · Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 1:36 pm Post subject:

Armonico Consort with Nicola Benedetti, Warwick International Festival

On some occasions all conditions seem to conspire to favour those who work extraordinarily hard.

Warwick International Festival organisers work hard and so, too, does Chris Monks with Armonico Consort.

This year's festival opening concert presented the Consort in fine form and clearly enjoying the opportunity to work with Nicola Benedetti in a programme of works by Bach and Handel.

Playing a 1723 Stradivarius, Nicola demonstrated her enormous competence in three solo parts of Bach's hugely challenging Partita No 2 in D minor – Sarabande, Gigue and Chaconne. Handel's Concerto Grosso, Opus 6 No 6, provided Nicola with her first chance to direct the Consort.

Members responded enthusiastically to her playing and direction and I understand at rehearsal she is a delight to work with, easy going and very unassuming.

Colleague violinists wondered if there was a chink in her armour, but apparently not so! She is a very nice girl. Chris Monks referred to her as a genius. She certainly is an extraordinary talent.

For many, Bach's Violin Concerto in A minor is a must in the CD collection. It was so very pleasing to hear the Concerto played in the grand church of St Mary's by one of the rising stars.

Considerably enhancing their reputation as one of the leading Baroque and chamber groups in the UK, the Consort was led by Chris Monks through Handel's fiendishly difficult Dixit Dominus which requires considerable vocal gymnastics – quite an amazing composition for an 18-year old!

Soloists Leah Jackson (soprano), Helen Swift (mezzo), Philip Jones (alto), Richard Rowntree (tenor) and Reuben Thomas (bass) were remarkably well supported by some very fine cello playing.

They really did have to work hard and their mellow sound was most rewarding.

A packed St Mary's and a great sound of Armonico Consort getting greater by the month was a stunning beginning to this year's Festival, and recognition of all the hard work that has gone into making it happen. I can hardly wait for 2 July when Armonico will be back with Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. Clive Peacock

VERDICT: Stunning start to the Festival

Source: Leamington Courier