LINDSAY DEUTSCH
The West Virginia Gazette
March 6, 2009

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The violinist Lindsay Deutsch made a stunning debut with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra Friday night at the Clay Center in works by Prokofiev and Corgliano.

Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 is a quirky, if magnificent, piece, and Deutsch had the full measure of it. The music often sounds Stravinskian, with spasms of ostinatos and galumhoing harmonies (although, unlike in Stravinsky, the bass notes remain willfully in the right place). A wealth of melody that is part grit and part faerie dust both stabilizes the piece and gives it flight.

Deutsch played with an abundant tone that was full of shades and colors. The variety included her wraithlike echoes of the basses’ melody at the end of the opening movement and the delicate meanderings of the slow movement that coalesced into a high, floating tune.

Through it all ran a sense of probing intelligence; this was extremely interesting music played by an artist exploring its every refinement.

Conductor Gran Cooper led a gorgeous accompaniment. Each of the movements ended remarkably and the bass drum, which, believe it or not, had some prominent parts, sounded fine.

The range of Deutsch’s artistry became abundantly clear in Corigliano’s “Red Violin Chaconne.” The piece is theatrical: long soliloquies are chopped and diced by the orchestra, which launches the violin into flights of virtuosity.

Deutsch played the soliloquies with intensity, balancing pretty sounds with lucidity in the thorny chorded passages that kept popping up. The fast, brilliant music was just that – and stunningly so.

The coda, with the violinist blazing away as the orchestra churned with primeval fury, drew shouts of acclaim from the audience.

Cooper’s interpretation of Ravel’s “Valse” was equally brilliant, one of the best performances of his tenure with the orchestra. Rhythms were supple and textures bubbled their details kaleidoscopically. Nearly every player or section had an important solo (and there was a striking gone by the bass clarinetist Jeanie Frieben that stood out), and all were strongly rendered.

LINDSAY DEUTSCH
The West Virginia Gazette
March 7, 2009

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Haven't Had This Much Fun at the Symphony!

The Bottom Line Young violinist Lindsay Deutsch warrants your attention and close watch!  A wonderful, intelligent yet emotive, fun and humorous performer!  Maestro Grant Cooper programs another excellent night for WVSO patrons!

Last night's performance at the Clay Center in Charleston, West Virginia, by the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra with guest violinist Lindsay Deutsch featured Russian Sergei Prokofiev's 2nd Violin Concerto, American John Corigliano's ‘Red Violin' Chaconne,  bookended by Austrian Johann Strauss, Jr's famous ‘On the Beautiful Blue Danube' and Frenchman Maurice Ravel's twist on the Straussian waltz, ‘La Valse'.  It's all part of the Symphonic Series called ‘On the Shoulders of Giants' programmed by Maestro Grant Cooper.

And I must confess, I haven't had this much fun at the symphony in a long while - all accomplished without anyone resorting to clownish or tacky tricks.  No, the evening's enjoyment owed a whole lot to the charismatic presence of the guest violinist herself, Ms Deutsch.

I wasn't familiar with the Prokofiev Violin Concerto before the concert, and that made me prick up my ears more to follow this work along with the players, with the music and rhythm all fresh and new to mine ears.  The ‘Red Violin' Chaconne was not a stranger, as I've long liked the theme from the interesting film about the travels through time and place of an old red violin.  

So we were treated to not just one, but two violin works.  Ms. Deutsch plays on a 1724 Sanctus Seraphin violin and bow (on loan from the Mandell Collection of Southern California), and the sound produced on this instrument is special - resonant, full-bodied, and projects well.

Besides her excellent, passion-filled yet intelligent playing, Ms Deutsch is also not a static stage performer at all.  Statuesque and well-toned, she will stand tall and straight with chin up in some particularly difficult, rapid passages, then she'll bend her body while dipping the violin forward in others as if to emphasize the notes - but I think it's also her way of reaching out to, and sharing the music with, the audience, much like a musical conversation she engages in. 

She does the same towards the conductor (the estimable Grant Cooper, director of the West Virginia Symphony) and the orchestra, too.  Her full-body and facial animation didn't annoy me in the least, and surprisingly so, as I tend to dislike over-acting, grimacing performers (Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Michiko Uchida, for all their fine playing, are impossible for me to watch.)  She wore a long, black gown accented with sparkling stones for the Prokofiev, then came back after the intermission with a blazing red gown gathered at one side (with matching red strap heels) for the ‘Red Violin' Chaconne.

The Prokofiev had all the jagged and exciting qualities typical of the composer, but there were loads of humor in there, too, especially in the third movement which sounds like an elephant lumbering onto the scene.  The humor and vitality are brought to more vivid life by Ms Deutsch's onstage deportment.  The strongly percussive 'Red Violin' Chaconne was truly invigorating, and great fun to watch being performed by Ms Deutsch and the orchestra.  She looked like she was having the time of her life, playing those two works.  I especially enjoyed watching her do those peppy pizzicatos (plucking of strings), and the snappy, whipping bow that ends a phrase.  I couldn't help but grin and smile all night, such joy did I feel listening to and watching the playing of Ms
Deutsch and the orchestra.

The two waltzes that opened and closed the program were very well played by the WVSO, and one had to resist the urge to get up and dance with that infectious, one-two-three, one-two-three rhythm.  They were perfect pieces to start and end a wonderful mix of the modern and traditional (thanks to Mr. Cooper's excellent sense of programming) that introduced the audience to less oft-played works, and to a truly rising violin artist (she's only 24, but is mature way beyond her years) who bears close watching.  Remember that name: Lindsay Deutsch - I do believe we shall hear more about her in the not-too-distant future!