Jean Sibelius, Ernest Chausson, Michael Tilson Thomas, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, London Symphony Orchestra - Sibelius: Violin Concerto; Chausson: Poeme for Violin & Orchestra; Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg

Working hard to stay in the spotlight

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg was featured on 60 Minutes as the untrammeled artist who couldn't be stopped, the underdog who swooned and swayed onstage, lost in her expressive rapture. That's what her fans expect, and she more or less lives up to the image here. This is very wayward playing, in which the soloist bends over backwards to keep the spotlight on herself. As a result of ignoring the composer, the score is pulled around like taffy.

Perhaps this is the new romanticism, and I would be thrilled if NSS's ideas were fascinating. But on the whole she swoops and exaggerates for no other purpose than ego display. There are breathless pauses and sudden leaps of excitement that make no sense. Tilson Thomas plays along by forgetting the tempo and waiting for his soloist to get through her next stunt.

It's funny, because I am all in favor of NSS's shtick about artistic freedom, but this junky Sibelius concerto is her personal trip, pure and simple. July 2, 2006

My favorite recording of this piece

I have eclectic taste in music and I have no expertise in any type. The Sibelius is one of my favorite violin concertos and this is my favorite recording of the piece. No, I don't know if Ms Salerno-Sonnenberg is a technically better violinist than any of the others who perform this piece and I really don't care. I have several recordings of this concerto and Nadja's performance simply tears my heart out. For me, the measure of success in any artform is whether or not the work evokes emotion. This is successful. December 5, 2005

Original, Honest, Raw, Viceral, Wild, and Wonderful

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Michael Tilson Thomas's recording of the Sibelius is a remarkable marriage of human outpourings. So often, this concerto-possibly because of its enormous combination of both musical and technical demands-swallows some of the most accomplished soloists whole.

I own dozens of recordings of this piece, and where many soloist come to the task with as much or more technical ability and experience as Salerno-Sonnenberg, somewhere between what Sibelius requires of the soloist and the actual performance, the soloist truckles to the composer's identity with rather bland and uninteresting essays of this work. Others are in battle from the first note, and give performances that sound like what a surfer cresting a wave looks like: sure, they're winning; they've beaten Sibelius, but was that object of the adventure?

It sometimes comforts us to classify that which moves us or changes us in the concert hall or on recordings as "definitive." But really what is a definitive performance if it is not one from which we walk away knowing as much about the performer(s) as we do about the composer? If not, why else would we go back to hear a performance of something we have already heard, or own several recordings of the same piece of music? What are we comparing? Technical prowess in an age when there are more technically proficient violinists prepared challenges presented by this work than ever? Is it possible to have a transcendent listening experience standing abascent to the score or the last performance we've heard?

Salerno-Sonnenberg and Tilson Thomas' performance of the Sibelius belongs in a third category of recordings of this concerto. Her reading of this work needs to be included in category along with the performances of Neveu, Jensen, Chung, and Kavakos of the same concerto. She is neither pushed along by the deluge the work creates, nor is she riding it, she integrates herself into its fabric. And like the readings of this work by Neveu, Jensen, Chung, and Kavakos, the conductor's unique sound is neither diminished nor does it overpower or threaten the soloist. Clearly, she and Michael Tilson Thomas worked closely together to produce a performance that says as much about them as it serves the composition. Each time I listen to this performance, I walk away feeling as if something new in this work as been revealed to me through these artists. Their honesty as highly consummate music makers and staunchly original persons brings to these readings that simply cannot be had anywhere else that is neither predictable nor mannered. Rather, it's something intimate as well as visceral, raw and exposed that can neither be classified or defined, but is very palpable.
October 26, 2004

Miraculous

Hmmm -- there are only five stars available. A pity.

This performance of the Sibelius Concerto has to be definitive. (The recording itself is superb -- a bonus.) I've long been convinced that the Sibelius Concerto must not be performed in a civilized manner. It has to bring tears. The tears are there, in the score, but they have to be made real -- and this performance makes them real.

There are a few recordings I hold as precious. One isn't even available commercially -- it was Solti's performance of Beethoven's Symphony #5 at Carnegie Hall with the CSO. (Don't bother looking -- none of the Solti performances on disk compare. I just happened to push the "record" button so as to capture the radio broadcast on tape.) Another is the Richter performance of Pictures at an Exhibition at Sofia (1958), which is probably still available on Philips -- look for "Richter Sofia Recital." Those were performances before an audience, and that probably has much to do with the electricity. But this is in the same musical class.

The Richter and the Sonnenberg performances are both what I consider to be essentials. That doesn't mean that you'll like either. A friend of mine -- a violinist in a highly regarded string quartet -- despises Sonnenberg. "She isn't decent in her performances; they're too emotional." Another friend, a pianist, disliked the Richter performance -- "not disciplined, over the top, indecent." Raw intensity can be "too much" for many people; these performances are not for those who want to "appreciate" music, but be left untouched by it. But they're still worth hearing, if only to know one's own musical thresholds -- where not to go. February 9, 2004

Only by Nadja!

Music lovers are not ambivalent about Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. You either love her for her passion and commitment, or hate her because it appears to be histrionic. I'm definitely in the first camp. Only Nadja can play Sibelius like this.

It is the most amazing recording of this concerto I know. The way she plays the second subject of the first movement alone is worth the price of the CD. There is an expression of total anguish coming through here that you'll find on no other recording. It is so easy in this piece to be blown away by how any of the top violinists play the bravura passages. It is in the slower passages that, in this recording, Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg sets herself head and shoulders above all the rest. The adagio is one of those incredible intersections of time, soloist, orchestra, and conductor that happens but rarely, where everything is just exactly right. You just have to hear it to believe it (and you should)! May 25, 2002

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