Friday, June 5, 2009

Mariangela Vacatello (Concerto I)

Everyone else in the building seemed to like her performance of Beethoven's Fourth Concerto, but she left me cold. Her tone sounded harsh, though that might just be me hearing her immediately after Son Yeol-eum. Still, I'm used to hearing this piece played with a great deal more tact than refinement. Perhaps she was going for an unorthodox interpretation, finding Beethoven's Sturm und Drang beneath the piece's surfaces. If so, she didn't convince me. The second movement was done sensitively and sympathetically, but the outer movements seemed leaden.

Before the performance, Steve Cumming warned us to shut off our cell phones, specifically pointing to a nearly silent passage near the end of the second movement where a cell phone ring would be particularly disruptive. Wouldn't you know it? A cell phone went off at precisely that point in the performance. God give me patience.

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