The Breakers Mansion reverberated with the fire and passion on Tuesday as Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64 in the hands of the brilliant young virtuoso closed the Newport Classical Summer Festival. Numerous reviews in this journal attest to the brilliance, passion, natural musicality of this dynamic young performer, and his work last night lived up to all the accolades. Despite the very fine arrangement for the smaller forces of a strings-only chamber sized orchestra by Richard Tognetti, director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra for the past 35 seasons, the piece does lose some of its charm and clarity without the winds, which provide not only color and contrast, but also allow the whole of the texture to be more open and sonorous. Here the often-close harmonic reconfigurations often had the parts running into each other, and with an all-strings sound this created something of a tangle for the ear. That did not take anything away from the energy from both soloist and orchestra; with flawless technique, Jackiw drove the outer movements forward, yet always commanded a bright, shining sound.
There were some truly magical moments such as the refined lightness of the arpeggios coming out of the cadenza of the first movement as the orchestra enters the theme for its final time, building to its finish and ending with the single hushed tone that ushers in the quiet chords that bridge to the lyrical Andante, the entire movement being its own magic, the outer themes tender and lyric, the middle theme more impassioned. The small recitative-like bridge to the third movement received a detailed interpretation, as each of its phrases became a musical dialogue, with different characterizations for each, rendering structural intelligence and integrity to this brief, often overlooked passageway to the brilliantly puckish third movement. Here we most missed the lightness and whimsy of answering woodwinds, but Jackiw’s drove the movement forward with a ferocity and drive as to resemble a meteorite burning bright in the sky. The stunning conclusion elicited wild applause.
Orpheus provided its own magic in the two works placed on either side of the concerto, Arensky’s Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky, Op. 35a and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, Op. 48. Also known in English as The Crown of Roses) Legenda (originally part of a set of songs for children written in 1883 and published as Op. 54, premiered at the Bolshoi in the composer’s own arrangement for tenor and orchestra 1in 884; he also arranged it for SATB choir in 1889. The words came from the Russian poet Aleksey Pleshcheyev’s 1877 translation of an 1856 American poem by Henry Stoddard describing the rose garden of the Christ child, from which came the garland of thorns placed upon his head. The simple melody reflects Tchaikovsky’s main influences from his conservatory training, his sense of Russian folk style, and his immersion in the music and style of the Russian Orthodox Church, which sense pervades the modal harmonization and simple chant-like second strain of the song.
Anton Arensky deftly captured this in his original quartet for violin, viola, and two cellos Op. 35 composed in 1894 to the memory of the Tchaikovsky, who died late in 1893. He based the four movements on Russian Orthodox chants, with the second movement setting Tchaikovsky’s Legenda melody with variations. Op. 35a sets just the Legenda movement in a more traditional string orchestra setting.
Orpheus was founded in 1972 on the principles of an orchestra playing with the intimacy of a chamber music ensemble, having no need of a conductor, rather sensing the ebb and flow of the music from one another. Seats rotate for each piece, thus whoever sits in the principal chair or has the primary melody, through that movement leads the entire ensemble. Watching the players’ complete freedom of movement, their balletic gestures, and their coordinated bowing movements felt as uplifting as hearing their soaring and sensuous playing. The ensemble shared some of its greatest gifts in soft unison melodic lines, played with little vibrato, rendering a pure choral-like sound. This proved effective in recalling the modal chant style of the Russian Orthodox Church so prevalent in the Arensky, but it also rendered beautiful passages in the folksier sound of Tchaikovsky’s serenade, notably the hushed balletic lines of the second movement Valse, the hushed chorale like outer sections and the more searing interior melodies of the third movement Elegia contrasting with the full, rich sonorous chords of the opening chorale like theme. This binds the work together as a frame in both the first and last movements and serves as the outline of the joyous folk theme which constitutes the final fourth movement Finale. Passionate, robust, and exciting, Orpheus remained true to its mission, conveying the intimacy and depth of Tchaikovsky’s diversion, a piece he himself loved, and which gave him joy in the final decade of his life.
This concluded Newport Classical Summer Festival while also bidding farewell to Executive Director Gillean Fox, whose truest gifts of leadership showed forth in a festival that ran so magnificently even with her presence no longer there. Far from being rudderless, an exciting 2025-2026 Chamber Music series and a children’s outreach concert have just been announced, all continuing Newport Classical’s vision of upholding tradition while pursuing the cutting edge of new contemporary classical music, all to the highest and exacting standards by world renowned artists of first-class caliber. Tickets go on sale July 29th, view the upcoming season HERE.