The Superb Simonyan Khachaturian VC

The 27 April 2013 concert brought another young debutant to the DFP hall. The soloist was 27 year old Mikhail Simonyan, who is already a veteran on the concert circuit and also a DG artist, who has recorded a CD so far of the Khachaturian and Barber violin concertos. Kilar's Orawa prefaced the superb Simonyan performance of the Khachaturian Violin Concerto. Orawa is a short modern Polish piece - somewhat in a repetitive John Adams style of composition. Personally, it could have been far more interesting if the conductor on the night, the venerable Antoni Wit could have opened proceedings with say, Penderecki's Adagietto from Paradise Lost instead. The highlight of the night was Simonyan's superb performance of the Khachaturian. There was ample passion, warm tones and an amazing demonstration of fantastic spiccato bowing in the concerto, which was receiving its debut after 16 years in the DFP concert hall. The violin Simonyan used was a modern reproduction of a Strad but it had a very sweet tone with great carrying power.

Conductor Wit directed a superb account of this colourful Armenian score without having to compromise on the dynamics. The audience responded to his magnificent performance with rapturous applause. Simonyan certainly has a good future ahead, like his Russian compatriots Vadim Repin and Maxim Vengerov. It would really good to see him again at the DFP in future - hopefully in concertos like the Kabalevsky and the Miaskovsky Violin Concertos for example. In the second half, we were treated to a superb Slavic performance of Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony, with Wit directing a magnificent and concentrated interpretation - with surging passion suitably attuned to this great Russian composer's style.