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TORONTO STAR November 27, 2006 Age and youth enthrall equally John Terauds Given their size and the expense involved, there aren't many orchestras that tour the world. But those who do are usually the best, like the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which played at Roy Thomson Hall yesterday afternoon. It's not an old orchestra, having been founded in 1932, but it is a great one. Given that it hasn't travelled this way for more than three decades, that Kurt Masur (one of the world's great conductors) was on the podium and that superstar American violinist Sarah Chang was a soloist meant the expectations from the near-capacity audience were high. Fortunately, every hope was likely fulfilled in a glowing performance of two classical masterpieces, Ludwig van Beethoven's 1803 Symphony No. 3 (the Eroica) and Jan Sibelius's 1904 Violin Concerto. A bonus for anyone looking for something beyond the immediate performance was the opportunity to hear another ensemble perform in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's home auditorium. Given that the TSO performed the Beethoven symphony a few weeks ago, one couldn't help but make comparisons. Despite the fact that the London Philharmonic enjoys a golden reputation, our local musicians are every bit as good - when they want to be. That they don't always sound as tight as the Londoners might have more to do with rehearsal time and who is holding the baton. In the Beethoven, Masur sometimes let his arms fall limply to his sides, the only sign of a pulse being a laser glance toward a relevant section of the orchestra. Yet he found the score's inner dynamic, amplifying the music's pulse and pushing the orchestral balance to the limit without ever making the sound gaudy. As beautiful as the Eroica was, it was a trifle compared to the blazing, bravura performance of the Sibelius concerto by 26-year-old Chang. She dug her whole body into the composer's technical challenges, drawing out a bracing barrage of sound. Yet, in the quiet second movement, she and the orchestra played with touching, symbiotic intimacy. |
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