Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica, City Hall

MICHAEL TUMELTY, Music Critic

Published on 19 Oct 2007

LET'S start at the end, and no pussyfooting. Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer and his amazing Baltic string band tore the City Hall crowd apart with an astonishing (unnamed) encore by Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla that had all the hurtling, funky, Latin rhythms and inflections familiar from Piazzolla's music, coupled with the immediacy of a jam session and the disciplined playing of a group so well-drilled their integrity was breathtaking. The vibraphone soloist (also unnamed) was out of this world.

As a start to the joint Royal Concert Hall/City Hall International Classical Season, it could hardly have been matched. But it was, repeatedly, throughout a programme that began with the purity of Arvo Part's Passacaglia for strings and vibes and culminated with a full-blooded performance of Tchaikovsky's great Souvenir de Florence, whose slow movement featured a melting duet between the first violin and cello.

No less interesting was the performance of Beethoven's Opus 127 String Quartet in E flat, written for full string section and delivered by Kremer and his band with a riveting intimacy that pulled back from the grandeur a string quartet usually lavishes on one of Beethoven's biggest opening statements.

And in Kremer's hands, Mendelssohn's D minor Concerto opened yet another window on the genius that flowed through the youthful composer. Best touch of the night? Kremer setting an example to all bosses by beetling offstage to let the band get on with it themselves in the Tchaikovsky. Superb.