Today, we went to the Symphony and listened to an amazing young violinist, Stefan Jackiw, who played Bethoven's Violin Concerto, the first time he performed this concerto in public. He will be performing it in February with the Boston Symphony.
Mr. Jackiw is a Senior at Harvard University, at the same time pursuing an Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory. He is 21, looks 18, and comported himself with authority in the pre-concert talk. He has already played with major orchestras, and even though he made his debut at age 14, with the Boston Symphony, he does not consider himself a child prodigy. The Washington Post, in 2005, called him a Talent That's Off the Scale. Until recently, he played the “Kiesewetter” Stradivarius, but has switched, if I heard correctly, to a Guarnieri. I think it's wonderful that young artists nowadays have the opportunity to play great instruments through loans.
He was questioned what bow he uses, and he said a French one; this was new information for me, I never realized that musicians not only use historic instruments, but also historic bows.
He played the difficult concerto beautifully, but the demanding cadenza may have exhausted him somewhat: there was a bit of faltering, or so I thought, at the beginning of the Largettho – but he soon found his stride again. A promising young talent indeed!
The orchestra, under Eckart Preu, played along nicely too, while I was a bit disappointed in the preceding Symphony No.8 in this all-Beethoven concert. But that may have been because I still had the summer performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra on my mind.
