Kwamé Ryan and the Charlotte Symphony, with violinist Gil Shaham, ship a rapturous all-Tchaikovsky night

CONCERT REVIEW:

Charlotte Symphony Orchestra
September 18, 2025
Belk Theater
Charlotte, North Carolina – USA
Charlotte Symphony Orchestra; Kwamé Ryan, conductor; Gil Shaham, violin.
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 1
TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto

Paul Hyde | 11 OCT 2025

In these discordant days in our public life, what a pleasure it’s, a blessing even, to return to the live performance corridor for a night of rapturous music-making.

The Charlotte Symphony’s all-Tchaikovsky program on September 18 featured the extraordinary violinist Gil Shaham, who delivered a surprising account of the Russian composer’s ever-popular Violin Concerto.

Shaham’s method is a marvel. In the thrilling efficiency at Charlotte’s Belk Theater, the violinist negotiated the concerto with chiseled readability and precision, with no sacrifice of heart-on-the-sleeve romanticism. Kwamé Ryan, the Charlotte Symphony’s music director, led the orchestra in a supportive, cohesive vogue.

From the start, Shaham introduced an impeccable tone and articulation par excellence to the concerto. Shaham dazzled within the virtuosic episodes of the lengthy first motion, following that up with a young and rhapsodic account of the second motion. He coaxed an enormous sound out of the decrease vary of his Stradivarius with none trace of harshness.

The violinist additionally introduced the welcome aspect of shock to the gradual motion by taking part in some passages with mild and unusual quietude. It’s all the time pleasing to listen to a delicate new tackle a well-known traditional.

Then it was off to the races for the famously exuberant finale, which Shaham took at breakneck pace whereas nonetheless sustaining the crisp readability that characterised the sooner actions.

Gil Shaham solos in Tchaikovsky’s ‘Violin Concerto’ with Kwamé Ryan and the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra on the Belk Theater (credit score: Genesis Photography)

For an encore, Shaham selected, by sharp distinction, a chunk he typically performs, the Gavotte en Rondeau, the third motion of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partita for Solo Violin No. 3 in E Major. It was cleanly and delightfully rendered by Shaham.

Shaham has an virtually modest stage presence. Throughout the live performance, he stood not out entrance however fairly near the orchestra, seemingly solely inches from the primary violinists, along with his face turned to his left facet in deep focus. When he moved, it was solely to face inches from Ryan’s left facet. In the orchestral interludes, nonetheless, Shaham boasted a beaming smile. His enthusiasm was contagious.

Under Ryan’s route, the orchestra was a really perfect associate within the efficiency, by no means overshadowing the soloist however shining brightly within the huge orchestral moments, such because the majestic most important theme of the primary motion. This was a gala live performance, and typically such events with a world-class soloist don’t permit for a lot rehearsal time, however the orchestra sounded totally polished.

A historic footnote: The first efficiency of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in 1881 acquired an infamously scorching evaluate from the influential critic Eduard Hanslick. Read right now, the evaluate appears uproarious in its hyperventilating negativity: “For a while, the concerto has proportion, is musical, and is not without genius, but soon savagery gains the upper hand and lords it to the end of the first movement,” Hanslick wrote. “The violin is no longer played: it is yanked about, it is torn asunder, it is beaten black and blue. The finale puts us in the midst of the brutal and wretched jollity of a Russian holiday festival. We see wild and vulgar faces, we hear curses, we smell bad brandy.”

Hanslick’s colourful criticism — unhealthy brandy certainly! — has not aged nicely. The Viennese critic was reacting to a concerto that was strikingly new and really Russian. Few concerto actions are extra thrilling than the finale that Hanslick dismissed as “brutal and wretched jollity.” The uncooked and rustic vitality of the concerto, which Hanslick despised, is the very purpose audiences have liked it for nearly 150 years.

Ryan opened the live performance with an achieved efficiency of Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony, subtitled Winter Dreams. Ryan drew strong and but refined taking part in from the orchestra. Particularly notable was the burnished string taking part in all through the symphony, particularly within the second and third actions. The second motion additionally spotlighted eloquent solos by oboist Timothy Swanson and flutist Victor Wang. With Ryan’s brisk tempos within the finale, the orchestra, powered by timpani and brass, sped the work towards a triumphant conclusion.

In a phrase, the efficiency was splendid. The Belk Theater for this world-class live performance gave the impression to be about three-fourths full at most. I’m wondering typically if Charlotte residents know what a treasure they’ve of their orchestra.

As a sidenote, the orchestra offered a superb printed program for the live performance. The orchestra has favored an on-line program for latest live shows, however right here’s hoping the orchestra will return to printed packages worthy of this high quality ensemble. ■

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About the writer:

Paul Hyde, a longtime journalist, teaches English at a university in South Carolina. He writes repeatedly for Classical Voice North America, ArtsATL, the Greenville Journal and the South Carolina Daily Gazette. Readers could discover him on X at @paulhyde7 or write to him at [email protected].

Read extra by Paul Hyde.

This entry was posted in Symphony & Opera and tagged Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Gil Shaham, Kwamé Ryan on October 11, 2025 by Paul Hyde.

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