Virtuoso Simone Lamsma gives SSO fans a Dutch treat
Dutch fiddler Simone Lamsma’s subtly weighted and shaped performance of Beethoven’s violin concerto wowed the audience on her Sydney debut.
Wentworth Courier
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Fiddlers agree to disagree about which violin concerto is the toughest — Jascha Heifetz thought Mendelssohn’s while others say Sibelius’ of Brahms’ — but most of them seem to concur that Beethoven’s masterpiece requires a special artistry to pull off.
This is because the soloist must contend with an orchestral score on a symphonic scale, filled with much-loved melodies and a fair sprinkling of virtuosic double stopping, soaring octave arpeggios, lightning fast scales up and down the fingerboard and stratospheric whispering moments where intonation has to be spot-on.
None of these potential snags — nor the formidable Fritz Kreisler cadenzas — fazed 34-year-old Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma making her much-anticipated Sydney debut. This was a subtly weighted and shaped performance with sensitivity given to Beethoven’s singing lines.
The closing moments of the gorgeous second movement was a case in point. The delicate filigree woven over the Francesco Celata’s clarinet solo, the trills, the perfect high notes all gave way to a magical moment when the audience’s hearts moved up to their mouths as Lamsma’s Stradivarius wove a gossamer thread before the full-throated trill and flourish that took us into the dancing finale.
PROWESS
Lamsma started playing in Holland at the age of five before moving to Britain at 11 to study at the Menuhin School and later the Royal Academy of Music. Since then she has quietly built up an impressive repertoire — gaining Dutch royal favour by performing for King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima during their visit to Luxembourg — and recording a handful of discs which showcase her extensive repertoire.
The young soloist’s seamless prowess was matched by an equally impressive performance by Sydney Symphony Orchestra under the elegant and judicious baton of English conductor Alexander Shelley. Celata and bassoonist Matthew Wilkie both richly deserved their ovations but Shelley had the SSO humming like Bentley for both this and the second work of the evening, Tchaikovsky’s angst-ridden Symphony No.4.
For her encore Lamsma took us on a full throttle thrilling ride with the final movement from Paul Hindemith’s Violin Sonata in G minor Op 11, No.6.
DETAILS
● CONCERT: Sydney Symphony with Simone Lamsma
● WHERE: Sydney Opera House Concert Hall
● WHEN: Monday, April 8