CONCERT REVIEW: Tchaikowsky: Souvenir d’un lieu cher- Oistrakh Festival

July 23, 2008
Here is a link to a review from this performance:
http://www.musicincincinnati.com/site/reviews/Violinist_Berman_and_Tchaikovsky_s_Souvenir_celebrate_David_Oistrakh_s_beloved_place.html

David Oistrakh Festival Estonia, Pärnu - Elisabeth Church
Paavo Järvi - conductor Tatiana Berman - violin
St. Peterburg Festival Chamber orchestra
Neeme Jarvi Summer Academy conductors
The programme:W.A.Mozart - Eine kleine Nachtmusik
D.Shostakovich - Chamber Symphony op. 110a in c (arr. By Stasevich)
Tchaikowsky: Souvenir d’un lieu cher, Op. 42 Meditation, Scherzo, Melodie
Benjamin Britten - Simple Symphony

http://www.oistfest.ee/index.php?id=315
An excerpt from the review: "It was the first of two concerts this month led by members of Neeme Jarvi's Summer Academy, an annual conducting master course held in conjunction with the Oistrakh Festival since 2000. Guest artist was violinist Tatiana Berman in Tchaikovsky’s “Souvenir d’un lieu cher,” which was conducted by Academy instructor Paavo Jarvi. Consecrated in 1750, St. Elizabeth Church hosts concerts each summer by the 37-year-old festival, named for legendary Russian violinist David Oistrakh, who summered in Parnu from 1955-70. This year’s festival commemorates the 100th anniversary of Oistrakh’s birth. There could have been no more fitting tribute to his memory than Russian-born Berman’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s three-part work. Originally for violin and piano (performed here in the arrangement for violin and strings by Alexandru Lascae), it was dedicated to Tchaikovsky’s “beloved place,” his patroness Nadezhda von Meck’s county estate in Poland, where he could spend time composing in the summer. Born in Moscow, Berman trained at the Yehudi Menuhin School (with Menuhin and Natalia Boyarsky) and London’s Royal College of Music (Yossi Zivoni). She plays with exquisite taste, style and precision. Here she brought every facet of the composer’s small gem to light. There were sweetness and purity of tone in the opening “Meditation,” where she climbed to a silvery high D at the end (five ledger lines above the staff). The “Scherzo” was a mini-steeplechase, with her bow bounding across the strings like an agile young filly, engaging in some beautiful dialogue at one point with SPFO concertmaster Alexander Shustin. The concluding, very familiar “Melodie” was exquisite from start to finish. There was a breathtaking moment at the return of the opening melody where she lengthened the tempo in precise sync with Jarvi and the orchestra. And why not, since Jarvi and Berman are husband and wife?"