GRAMOPHONE Review: Barber / Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos – Johan Dalene, Norrköping Symphony Orchestra/Blendulf
Gramophone has already singled out this young man as one to watch and from the shaping of his solo entrance in the Tchaikovsky alone there’s a ‘presence’ about Johan Dalene’s playing that announces a musician of special sensibilities. It’s amazing how quickly one can tell.
I guess the most striking thing about this young Swedish player – a mere nineteen years old – is the complete absence of showiness or indeed any sense of virtuosity on display. He is the most honest of brokers in the Tchaikovsky. Rubato is sparingly used and his attention to dynamics (a big tool in his armoury) speaks volumes even when it doesn’t, if you catch my drift. The artless way in which the first movement’s second subject sings is a case in point – and when we come to the cadenza his super-subtle shadings illuminate phrases that have long been taken for granted. It’s playing that genuinely draws you in and keeps you on the edge of your seat.
The second movement Canzonetta is possessed of an inwardness that is quietly special, the melody at one point suddenly whispered as if sharing ‘in confidence’ its lonely soulfulness.
Notice that I have not drawn attention to the brilliance of Dalene’s playing – and it is brilliant, though more in its articulation (no smudged or ‘cheated’ figurations here) than its fireworks per se. Some might be looking for a more red-blooded earthiness or flamboyance in this piece – what you might call swagger or ‘temperament’ – but its nimble-fingered directness is no less exciting in its way.
The Barber really suits Dalene. I always think of the opening as conveying a sense of us having joined it in the middle of an intimate conversation – and he compounds that feeling with his confidential manner. He and his like-minded conductor – the excellent Daniel Blendulf – deliver a throughly coherent and embraceable view of the piece with the soloist in the best sense an integrated part of the orchestral fabric (particularly so in the first movement). Dalene’s compatriots, the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, play with equal freshness throughout and mindful of the nod to Brahms I must single out the first oboe who gets first bite of that gorgeous slow movement melody. When Dalene finally gets his turn it is testament to a maturity way beyond his years that he comes close to breaking your heart with it.
His future is bright indeed.
