In Wednesday’s (2/24) Wall Street Journal, Barbara Jepson writes, “In the 1930s, horrific developments in Europe ultimately swept more than 50 countries into the most destructive global conflict ever known. Coincidentally during that decade, at least 14 significant composers wrote violin concertos, many for the first time. The list includes Samuel Barber, born 100 years ago this March, Béla Bartók (his second for the instrument), Alban Berg, Ernest Bloch, Benjamin Britten, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Paul Hindemith, Walter Piston, Sergei Prokofiev (his second), Arnold Schoenberg, Roger Sessions, Igor Stravinsky, Karol Szymanowski and William Walton. The superb violinist Gil Shaham performs seven of these works in ‘Concertos of the 1930s,’ a project with major American and European orchestras that continues over the next year or so. Last month, he played an impressive double-header of Barber and Prokofiev with the Kansas City Symphony under its music director, Michael Stern. From Feb. 25 to 27, he reprises the Barber with the New York Philharmonic and guest conductor David Robertson. In April, Mr. Shaham performs the Barber, Prokofiev’s second, Stravinsky and Walton concertos on a five-city national tour with the St. Louis Symphony under Mr. Robertson.”
Posted February 24, 2010
