Kaler wowed the audience with a Bach encore.
Russian-born violinist Ilya Kaler made a stunning impression when he appeared with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra two seasons ago. Back then, Kaler presented a virtuoso performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.
On April 20, the WCO brought Kaler back to Madison, and the soloist outdid himself by playing a concerto by Nicolò Paganini; Kaler won the Paganini Competition in Genoa in 1981.
The Concerto No. 2 in B minor is known as La campanella, or “Little Bell.” The name derives from the final movement (which really includes a little bell), built upon a tune that both Paganini himself and then Liszt turned into a widely played solo piece.
As music, this concerto is not particularly distinguished, and its purpose is to provide a platform for the soloist’s fireworks. It was originally played by the composer himself, and is now tackled by violinists with boundless technique and a lot of nerve. Kaler plainly has both. The technical demands upon the soloist are absolutely fiendish, but Kaler showed that he was totally in command. And he apparently remembered that Paganini was an Italian, and managed to bring to a certain warmth to his playing, amid all the showiness, especially in the slow movement.
The audience was appropriately wowed. As an encore Kaler gave them a beautifully nuanced Gavotte from Bach’s Violin Partita No. 3.
The opening work was the second of six string sonatas composed by the teenage Rossini. These were juvenile toss-offs, intended for an intimate circle who happened to play two violins, cello and double bass. They were meant to be done one player per part, but maestro Andrew Sewell created a convincing orchestral arrangement with 16 string players, enabling him to show off just how admirably disciplined this string section has become.
Sewell has already given many demonstrations of his great personal sympathy for the symphonies of Haydn. He renewed the point by digging back to one composed before the most famous late ones. Indeed, No. 81 in G comes from just before Haydn produced the six masterpieces we know as the “Paris Symphonies,” which preceded the 12 “London” ones.
This is not among Haydn’s best works in this form, but Sewell treated it as if it was, with warm affection and care. This animated the work throughout, but nowhere better than in the lovely theme-with-variations slow movement.
