Music soothes the savage Hippo

There arent many classical pieces of music that I like but the ones I like, I like them with a passion. The accoustic in the symphony hall in SF isnt the best but hearing your passion played live is unmatchable. Years ago I heard my beloved Tchaikovsky's 2 concertos. Last month finally I got to listen to my other beloved, Mendelssohn's violin concerto in E Minor. While I was disappointed at both soloists who played Tchaikovsky's piano and violin concertos, Felix's concerto was played by the young Armenian Sergey Khachatryan whose absolute absorption into Felix's piece gave total justice to the creator. Felix's piece is something out of this world. What I like about it is the fact that it is not like any other concerto. It starts with an immediate entrance of the violin without any orchestral opening ritornello. It has an immediate urgency that demands your total devotion. Forget the rest of the concertos which open with confusing, often unrelated melodies that are never repeated. This one got an "urgent quality with an elegaic sentiment of surprising intensity" (The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, 2007). While Tchaikovsky's violin piece conjures up a desperate longing or a 'saudade' for distant shores, violently out of control but soothed by intermitten passivity and calm, Mendelssohn's is an urgent continuous crescendo that builds and builds, accumulating energy without interruption (The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, 2007). "The soloist seems to play twice as many notes as any pair of other instruments combined. This movement is structured in a 'question and answer' form, with the violin and orchestra trading lively ideas and challenges back and forth with ever-mounting glee until they finally marshal their forces to agree on an ending statement that leaves the audience clamoring for more" ( Geoff Kuenning, 1994). Ah, well said, it reflects my total sentiment for this piece.

Felix Mendelssohn	Sergey Khachatryan