Fiddler with rock star looks brings the Opera House down

French-Serbian violin star Nemanja Radulovic turned out to be a crowd-pleaser when he performed three works with Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Serbian French violinist Nemanja Radulovic performed with Sydney Symphony Orhestra. Picture: Charlotte Abramow/Deutsche Grammophon

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The pieces were aimed at showing his poetic style, virtuosity and willingness to break the boundaries and this, combined with his rock star looks and youth and energy, proved a winning combination.

The main work was Ernest Chausson’s Poeme for violin and orchestra, a piece with strong Wagnerian overtones especially in the orchestral scoring. It served to illustrate the 34-year-old Radulovic’s talent for pinpointing a singing line and teasing out the work’s underlying emotions, sometimes playfully.

Radulovic plays with great attack and a good deal of elan, and these qualities were both needed for the next piece, Maurice Ravel’s Tzigane, the French composer’s barnstorming take on the Hungarian gypsy violin genre. Here Radulovic was able to show his grab bag of tricks — double stopping, percussive bowing, stratospheric runs, harmonics and all — to brilliant effect.

STRENUOUS

Such a performance demanded an encore and after four curtain calls the young star drew sighs of appreciation an old favourite of virtuoso fiddlers, Niccolo Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 which gave Raduclovic’s 1843 violin by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume a strenuous workout.

Earlier French conductor Jaime Martin gave a vivid reading of four pieces from Georges Bizet’s L’Arlesienne Suites Nos. 1 and 2. This was followed by a performance of Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 6, but the highlight for many of the audience was the flamboyant Serb’s brilliant display of technique and showmanship.

DETAILS

● CONCERT: SSO Dvorak’s Symphony No. 6

● WHERE: Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

● WHEN: Friday, June 13