Conductors: David Greed, Anthony Kraus
Soloists: Madeleine Mitchell, David Greed, Tom Greed
This sell-out concert at St. Edmund’s was a dual celebration: the opening concert of Sinfonia of Leeds’ season and the culminating event of the Red Violin Festival. This festival, which switches from city to city and celebrates the violin in many different ways, finished six very successful days in Leeds with a very violin-heavy programme at Roundhay: two violin concertos with soloists Madeleine Mitchell, Artistic Director of the Red Violin Festival, and David Greed, joint Musical Director of Sinfonia of Leeds, together with his son Tom Greed.
Vivaldi’s Concerto for 2 Violins, with the Greeds as soloists and David also keeping the orchestra on side, began proceedings, three short movements with notable interplay between the two violins, accompanied by the strings of the orchestra who came into their own with the emphatic recurring theme of the last movement. Though the orchestra had better chances to shine, when brass, woodwind and timpani joined in for the later works, it was impressive to see a semi-professional orchestra picking up David Greed’s directions (in between soloing with dextrous vigour alongside his son) so capably.
Then it was time for David Greed to lay aside the violin and conduct the Bruch Violin Concerto, with Madeleine Mitchell as soloist. She betrayed few signs of having been distracted by a week of playing in small groups and organising flash mobs, though her account was less extrovert and passionate than some – the last movement, full of Hungarian melodies and changes of tempo, was a delight, finishing the concerto in style following the drama of the Vorspiel and the lyricism of the Adagio.
After the interval it was Dvorak’s Symphony No. 7, conducted by Anthony Kraus, the other joint Musical Director, and it was a revelatory performance to those of us who do not know the work, overshadowed by Numbers 8 and 9 and apparently a response to a sad period in his life. For a start Kraus obtained splendid playing from the orchestra, the brass incisively crowning every climax, the woodwind exchanging lyrical solos in the second movement. Then there was the symphony itself, eschewing the charm of Slav dance rhythms (except, to an extent, in the third movement) and replacing it with a Beethoven-ish intensity of purpose. The final movement broke the chains of the minor key, abandoned the last notes of sadness and finished on a note of joy!
The packed church gave reasons for optimism for both the Sinfonia (three more concerts there this season) and the Red Violin Festival – could it return to Leeds?
Reviewed on 19th October 2024
