In the right hands, and with the right music, a violin can be as seductive as black lingerie.
Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D Major in the hands of the superbly talented Henning Kraggerud promises to be an affair to remember.
No stranger to the area, Norwegian-born Kraggerud made his debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2005. He returns to perform with the orchestra under the baton of Italian conductor Robert Abbado. The program is appropriately titled “True Romance,” for in addition to the Brahms piece, the musical evening includes Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.”
Typical of the Romantic period in musical composition, the violin concerto boils over with emotion that ranges from melancholy to joy, with complex melodic and rhythmic figurations for solo violin. Thirty-three-year-old Kraggerud has bonded with the piece, as Ashley Hassebroek of the Omaha World Herald noted in a review published after he performed it last June with the Opera Omaha.
“When Kraggerud joined the orchestra … he seemed shy, friendly, and unassuming. As soon as the violinist began Johannes Brahms’ Concerto … he became a fierce virtuoso with fire and breathtaking control,” Hassebroek wrote.
Mussorgsky composed “Pictures at an Exhibition” as a tribute after the death of his artist friend, Victor Hartman. The composer, wishing “to draw in music,” set 10 of his friend’s drawings to piano. When orchestrated, the piece is meant to depict Mussorgsky strolling through Hartman’s exhibition in deep reflection of each piece.
Robert Abbado has been acclaimed as “a conductor you want to hear again and again.” His dramatic music-making, coupled with instinctive lyricism and inherent knowledge of all composers and styles, makes him a favorite with symphony orchestras throughout the world. The Addado and Kraggerud team is a heady mixture for romance, and of Kraggerud’s emotional performances, BSO’s Director of Artists and Special Projects Miryam Yardumian remarked: “Ever since he first appeared with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in May 2005, the orchestra and audiences alike have been looking forward to his return.”
IF YOU GO
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and True Romance
» Venue: The Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, Bethesda
» Time: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
» Tickets: $25 to $75
» More info: www.baltimoresym phony.org
