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Julian Rachlin and China Philharmonic Orchestra

2015-03-03 14:49    Web Editor: Si Huan
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World-class violinist plays two of the instrument's best-loved concertos in the same night The violinist Lithuanian violinist Julian Rachlin is possibly the busiest man in music. After winning the 1988 Eurovision Young Musician of the Year, he became the Vienna Philharmonic's youngest soloist.

Today, the preternaturally youthful musician has added viola and conducting to his repertoire, and in his spare time serves as Ambassador to Unicef and as a Young Global Leader for the World Economic Forum. But don't be fooled by the high-profile exposure, the musical multi-tasking or his who's who of collaborators; Rachlin is all artist. He plays chamber music with luminaries such as Martha Argerich and Gidon Kremer, and has performed dedicated works by contemporary composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki.

This month, his Beijing programme includes two of violin's most famous concertos, from Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn. Tchaikovsky's violin concerto Nicknamed the 'porcelain child' by his long-suffering governess, Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky was given to bouts of depression, but his sensitivity unearthed luxurious, haunting and unforgettable melodies. No doubt some angst stemmed from his secret homosexuality, which he attempted to conceal by marrying an infatuated student.

Unfortunately, Antonina Milyukova was intellectually deficient and sexually insatiable, the death knell to an already ill-fated union. Tchaikovsky waded into an icy river hoping to contract fatal pneumonia, after which he and his anticlimactic head cold fled to Lake Geneva. There he began writing his violin concerto, which today joins works by Beethoven, Brahms and Sibelius as one of the instrument's 'big four' – litmus tests for any soloist.

The piece had a shaky start, however.

The dedicatee dismissed it as 'unplayable', and at the premier the jeers drowned out the applause. Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick opined that, 'The violin is no longer played, it is beaten black and blue.' But this masterwork lodged itself in our collective hearts and minds, and endless listens are never enough. Mendelssohn's violin concerto He was highly strung and prone to fits of temper, and his workaholic tendencies drove him to an early grave, but compared to the archetypal Romantic composer, Felix Mendelssohn's life was unusually serene.

He was a piano prodigy who debuted at age nine, but his parents spared him the gruelling Mozartian world tour.

Mendelssohn's work is deemed controversial because of his conservatism and youthful exuberance. Being labelled 'underdeveloped', combined with widespread anti-Semitism, eventually pushed his music off the world stage. But his symphonies and chamber works found favour again, and his violin concerto has never been out of style.

Once part of violin's 'big four' concertos, Mendelssohn was recently edged out by Sibelius, but it remains a sentimental favourite, and its unusual structure – particularly the cadenza (solo) placement – has influenced many composers since.

IF YOU GO

Address: Forbidden Concert Hall, Xichang'an Jie Tiananmen, Dongcheng district, Beijing

Admission: 50-880RMB

Date: Sun 08 Mar

Time: 7.30pm-9.30pm

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