Akiko Suwanai's superb Sibelius VC

This evening really belonged to the superb violinist Akiko Suwanai, who made her long-awaited debut here in KL with one of the greatest 20th century violin concertos - the Sibelius. A few seasons ago, Suwanai was supposed to have made her Malaysian debut with the Dvorak Concerto but had to cancel due to illness.

I had watched the Sibelius Concerto on many occasions live (Vengerov at his Proms debut, Anne-Sophie Mutter with Sir Charles Groves in London, Pekka Kuusisto and Anje Weithaas in KL among some of the performances that I had seen). Let me cut to the chase and say that Suwanai's is the most stunning live rendition that I had heard. [Vengerov had a memory lapse in the last movement, whilst Mutter was not so technically secure at age 23. Kuusisto was very intent on dragging and then pulling ahead as he felt led to do so. Weithaas' rendition was hampered by a very dark sounding violin that was submerged by the MPO's accompaniment]

Armed with the 1714 ex-Heifetz Dolphin Strad, Suwanai's interpretation was stunning in its technical delivery - no hurdle was too difficult for this sweet-looking soloist. In comparision to her SACD recording with the CBSO and Sakari Oramo, the middle animated section of the second movement was excellently done, with a swifter and more passionate response than the SACD version. I had two bones of contention though with her playing - the rhythm in certain bars (e.g. Bar 9 after Figure 3 and Bar 16 after Figure 10 in the Eulenberg miniature score of the 1st movement) elongated beyond their written value and also the very swift speed set for the third movement by Kevin Field (resulting in some serious co-ordination problems with the MPO).

Apart from the less than inspired conducting from Field, I felt that it would have been better A&R practice to have Suwanai perform in KL with a recognized Sibelian like Oramo. I also felt that solo Bach is over-played as an encore (She offered us a movement from the D minor Partita, whilst there are many other choices for a solo violin encore e.g. a movement from Ysaye's Solo Sonatas or Herman Bellstedt Jr's "Caprice on Dixie" for a change). It was refreshing to hear Ilya Gringolts in Ernst's Der Erlkonig for a solo encore some months back.

I did not like the programming for the concert - which featured John Adam's Short Ride in a Fast Machine (yet over and over again at the DFP!) and also Tuur's Passion. Field could have just simply played a piece like Penderecki's Adagietto from Paradise Lost for a change before the Sibelius. For the post-interval closing piece, we had a highly charged interpretation of Copland's best symphony - his Third. It was not ideally precise from the trumpets and horns but at least the MPO played this with flair.