Nicola Benedetti was first propelled into the public eye at just 16, on winning the BBC Young Musician with a performance of Szymanowski's First Violin Concerto. In the five years since then, the violinist has had to cope not only with the raised profile that the BBC title offers, but also with intrusive and often harsh media attention that focused more on her good looks and affluent background than on her music making.
Nonetheless, despite a Ł1million, six-album deal with Deutsche Grammophon, a Classical BRIT Award, and representation by IMG artists, Benedetti has managed to resist any easy dismissal as a 'classical babe'. Often choosing lesser-known works and recording new commissions by MacMillan and Tavener, she recently took time out from her performing career to focus on technique and new repertoire, receiving lessons from Pavel Vernikov in Vienna, returning to the stage at the BBC Proms in the Park this summer. Judging by her performance of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the Czech Philharmonic in Dublin, it was obviously time well-spent, as she stunned audiences with an incredibly assured rendition of the concerto that belied a greater sense of maturity than her 22 years would otherwise suggest.
Playing a 1712 Earl Spencer Stradivarius, Benedetti looked entirely comfortable on stage, expressing Tchaikovsky's famous opening melody with a rich velvet tone and handling the fireworks of the first movement cadenza and coda with dazzling ease. Whilst the orchestra in this concerto plays more of a supporting, accompanimental role than opposing the soloist, the ensemble, under Hruša's direction, perfectly complimented and balanced the soloist, and together they drew out the gypsy-like character of the work. Entirely focused throughout the performance, Benedetti 's performance was richly musical and engaged the audience right through to the exuberant joy of the final.
The high spirits continued after the interval, although the combination of Czech orchestra, conductor and composer was tempered in the choice of Dvorák's Seventh Symphony, a work less infused with folk idiom than the more often programmed Eighth or Ninth symphonies. Commissioned by the London Philharmonic in 1884, the symphony owes much to the influence of Brahms' passionate Third Symphony, premiered the previous year and admired by Dvorák.
Another young conductor fast gaining an international reputation, Hruša is the protégé of Jirí Belohlávek. Yet, in contrast to some of his peers, Hruša shies away from affected sweeping gestures; his movements and conducting style, whilst economical, are far from lacking in energy. There were often times, however, when the orchestra sounded too boisterous, even forced, particularly in the final movement of the symphony. Indeed, it felt like a performance that perhaps would have translated well in the recording studio, but in the concert hall begged for more a more nuanced reading. In the opening Martinu Estampes too, written just over fifty years ago, before the composer's death, the orchestral colours reminiscent of Prokofiev and Stravinsky, although technically secure, could have been more vividly portrayed.
The Czech Philharmonic with Jakúb Hruša and Nicola Benedetti are currently on tour in the UK, and will be performing on Wednesday 28th October in Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, on Thursday 29th October in Symphony Hall, Birmingham and on Friday 30th October in The Anvil, Basingstoke.
Photo: Nicola Benedetti
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