ARTS MONDAY: Jackiw’s Violin Steals Show

Students not present in Sanders Theatre Friday night may have missed the most exciting concert of the year. No, Chester French didn’t open for the Dins again and the corpse formally known as Bob Dylan is back on his ranch in Minnesota. But those students missed out on the latest on-campus opportunity to hear the playing of rising star and semi-professional concert violinist Stefan P. Jackiw ’07.

When the lights dimmed and the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra (HRO) took the stage, Sanders Theatre was filled to the brim with a massive well-dressed crowd. The concert opened with Stravinsky’s “Symphonies of Wind Instruments” written in late 1920 based on a group of piano pieces composed earlier that year in honor of Impressionist composer Claude Debussy.

Because the piece only called for winds, the only players on stage were tucked away in the back corners of the stage behind a throng of chairs intended for the strings. This bizarre stage arrangement added to the sense of distance and otherworldliness present in Stravinsky’s composition.

In one sense, the piece was unexpectedly out-of-place in Sanders Theatre. Stravinsky’s love of atonality and radical rhythms made Sanders Theatre’s vaulted ceiling, traditional baroque chandelier, and classic statues seem anachronistic. However, the academic atmosphere of the auditorium—it doubles as a classroom—was a very appropriate setting for the performance and seemed to enhance Stravinsky’s notoriously mathematical approach to musical composition.

Despite an occasional lack of crispness at the beginning and end of notes, the opening performance of “Symphonies” was solid. The clarinetists were especially clear and confident, and the difficult polyrhythms and polytonalities were handled commendably.

The real show, however, was about to begin. Amid a storm of applause, Jackiw took the stage as the soloist for the second performance of the evening, Saint-Saëns’ “Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor.” Though Saint-Saëns is arguably one of the most important figures in the development of modern French music, his work is rarely played by contemporary symphony orchestras.

Jackiw stood calmly and confidently in a twilight-blue shirt, his face only perturbed by the compression of his brow on particularly tender passages. The color of his violin so matched the dark mahogany of the theatre interior that his instrument seemed to disappear; he seemed to be performing a dance with his bow.

His string tone was rich and pure throughout, and his technical mastery was outdone only by his evident emotional connection with the music. Most notable from a technical standpoint was his brilliant handling of the difficult harmonics at the end of the second movement. The orchestra complimented the soloist well, following his lead and controlling their dynamics.

Jackiw and the orchestra were met with uproarious applause at the conclusion of the third and final movement of the concerto. The entire house rose to its feet with hoots and hollers and shouts of “Bravo! Bravo!” Despite many entreaties, Jackiw could not be coaxed into an encore.

Asked to describe his experience performing with conductor Dr. James Yannatos and the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, Jackiw told the audience: “The whole scene was exciting. I knew everyone in the orchestra and a lot of people in the audience. It was great to perform with my friends.”

Jackiw noted he was glad that Dr. Yannatos and the HRO agreed to perform Saint-Saëns’ “Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor” at his request. “It’s not played very often,” said Jackiw, “but it’s one of my favorite pieces.”

The third and final performance of the evening, Brahms’ first symphony, was technically a success but doomed by the program to a feeling of anticlimax. After Jackiw’s rapturous violin concerto, little short of a miracle could create a worthy successor.

In the Brahms piece, the first few movements were a bit sloppy, especially in the winds. However, the pizzicato passages in the third movement were sharp and clear. Indeed, the orchestra’s performance of the symphony’s memorable and famous fourth movement fittingly concluded a night when the works of the greats were masterfully played by the up-and-coming greats.

—Reviewer Jonathan M. Hanover can be reached at jhanover@fas.harvard.edu.