Stephen Waarts and Daniel Cohen, two young, extremely lively musicians, appear with the Munich Symphony Orchestra – and devote themselves to two works with enormous claims.
Two monuments of the classic-romantic core repertoire were on the program of the Munich Symphony Orchestra in the almost full Isarphilharmonie: Ludwig van Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major and Antonin Dvořák’s 9th Symphony “From the New World”. The enormous claim of the two works, which are surrounded by a terrifying performance history with the greatest names of soloists and conductors, were faced by two young, extremely lively and courageously energetic musicians: the 26-year-old, multi-award-winning American violinist Stephen Waarts and the 38-year-old Israeli conductor Daniel Cohen. Cohen is currently General Music Director of the Staatstheater Darmstadt and began his career as a violinist in Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.
The fact that both enjoyed the attention and respect of the symphony was shown by the performance of the Beethoven concerto, which was well coordinated between the soloist and the orchestra. Waarts, slim and tall, seems relaxed at first, but when he starts playing, he burns with expressive fire and tonal vitality. Neither sentimentality nor misunderstood devotion cloud its tonal straightforwardness and technical impeccability. Cohen carefully directed the orchestra, and so the piece was not conceived as a solo show with accompaniment, but as a symphonic concerto in which, for example, the bassoon (!) can also have a solo role. The young master violinist thanked the roaring bravi in the almost full hall with the enchantingly light performance of the first movement from Eugène Ysaÿe’s 5th solo sonata.
As convincingly as Daniel Cohen had contributed to Beethoven’s success with control and overview, he behaved just as suddenly, impetuously and sometimes as Rumpelstiltskin with Dvořák’s “New World”. Some of it was nobly and well organized, such as the scherzo, and the English horn solo in the largo was played by the musician so beautifully and devotedly that that alone made the evening worthwhile. But the fact that the brass in particular boomed too loud too quickly was due to Cohen’s too arbitrary sound direction. But the piece always wins, thunderous applause.