Praise for Nicola Benedetti’s U.S. Premiere of James MacMillan’s Violin Concerto No. 2

Nicola Benedetti gives the U.S. Premiere of James MacMillan’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Fabio Luisi (Photo credit: Sylvia Elzafon)

Dallas Symphony, Nicola Benedetti introduce new James MacMillan Violin Concerto
By Scott Cantrell
The Dallas Morning News
November 18, 2022

Dallas audiences remain wary of new music, and the vast expanses of Bruckner’s symphonies — those great crashes of brass and melodic and rhythmic motifs repeated again and again — challenge plenty of attention spans. But there was a rousing ovation for the MacMillan.

At least on these shores, James MacMillan, born in 1959, is the best known contemporary Scottish composer. The DSO and trombonist Jörgen van Rijen gave the North American premiere of his Trombone Concerto in 2018.

Composed in 2021, during dark days of the COVID-19 shutdown, the Second Violin Concerto is a DSO co-commission with the Scottish and Swedish chamber orchestras and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. The DSO is giving the first U.S. performances, with violinist Nicola Benedetti — for whom it was composed — and music director Fabio Luisi conducting.

Twenty-four minutes long, in a single movement exploring what MacMillan calls “different musical territories,” the concerto seems very much a product of its difficult time. “It’s quite a rhapsodic and emotional piece,” he told The Scotsman in an interview. “There’s a lot of emotion in the melodic writing, I think, but also humor and wit.”

In an almost Wagnerian opening, quiet wind chords and gentle rustles of strings prepare the soloist’s free-floating entrance. Subsequent mad fiddling rouses timpani, and then a tart march briefly suggests Shostakovich.

Dreamy, ruminative music becomes more anxious, stirring up a storm of orchestral sound and mocking brasses. But there’s also a series of dialogues between the solo violin and individual musicians in the orchestra: cello (Jolyon Pegis), trumpet (L. Russell Campbell), bassoon (Scott Walzel), oboe (Erin Hannigan), flute (Hayley Grainger) and violin (concertmaster Alexander Kerr).

The epilogue is surprisingly romantic, lushly so, with fluttering flutes echoing the last of Strauss’ Four Last Songs.

In a performance arresting start to finish, Benedetti brilliantly supplied everything from angry scrubbings to sweet soarings on high. Luisi and the orchestra were admirable partners.

Read the full review here.

Praise for Nicola Benedetti’s U.S. Premiere of James MacMillan’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with Dallas Symphony