Festival Music
James Ehnes and Steven Osborne
Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh
Keith Bruce, five stars
THE 1715 “Marsick” Stradivarius played by Canadian violinist James Ehnes not only produces a lovely rich and full sound in his expert hands, it is also one of the most beautiful instruments to look at. It has its ways though, as the player found as he and pianist launched into the ferocious rhythms of the finale of Brahms Sonata No 3 and a tuning peg sprung out onto the Queen’s Hall platform. This was less of a problem for those of us who could watch him swiftly re-string the instrument than for listeners to the live broadcast, as Ehnes was quick to comment, but I am sure Kate Molleson filled the silence with skill. “It’s the trouble with these old, used violins,” joked the violinist, as the duo picked up from where they had left off.
Perhaps the fiddle knew what was coming next though. Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata No 1 won the Stalin prize in 1947 and is a very dark work, especially in its opening and third slow movements. They were played over the composer’s dead body as he lay in state at the start of March 1953, having expired in the same hour of the same day as Stalin. The player was David Oistrakh, and the violin the very one that Ehnes now uses.
It was not necessary to know all of that, however, to appreciate the superb partnership that he and Scots pianist Steven Osborne have forged, and with more, much earlier and less troubled Prokofiev in the second half of the recital, and an encore of the third movement of the Second Violin Sonata (originally written for flute) as the encore, surely a recording of the pair of them is in the works.
Let’s hope they also get round to recording that Brahms, and perhaps a disc of French music with Debussy’s Violin Sonata and the exuberance of Ravel’s Tzigane, the first beautifully contemplative and the latter a staggering showpiece, eventually for both instruments.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here