Melodies were coming easily to Johannes Brahms when he wrote his Violin Concerto, so he planted a plethora of them throughout the piece. They pop up all over the orchestra, the soloist sometimes taking them up, other times responding with a completely different one. While melodiousness can present a sense of ease, Brahms tasked his soloist with a devilishly difficult concerto.
But you may never encounter a violinist who makes it as captivating as Christian Tetzlaff. At Thursday's midday concert with conductor David Afkham and the Minnesota Orchestra, the German violinist reinforced the perception he's left on past visits: That, when it comes to violin repertoire, Tetzlaff is one of the master interpreters of our age. Batting leadoff on a concert that also featured 20th-century works by Henri Dutilleux and Béla Bartók, Tetzlaff presented a deeply absorbing take on the Brahms concerto, one that employed the full range of dynamics available to both violin and orchestra.
Even before he played a note, it seemed this would be a special performance, for some of those memorable melodies show up in the extended intro, and the orchestra painted a lovely landscape for Tetzlaff to traverse. And what a beautiful balance between orchestra and soloist, Afkham acutely attuned to the soloist's desire to emphasize soft clarity on the pianissimo passages, the better to set up the ensuing explosions. The first movement climaxed with a cadenza full of contrast, low and light, sweet and brusqu.
