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RECITAL REVIEW
February 24, 2006
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By Jonathan Russell
Last Friday, the audience at Old First Church in San Francisco was treated to a fine and impassioned recital from young violinist Johnny Lee, ably accompanied by pianist Christopher Weldon. Lee joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2005, and has recently appeared as a soloist with the Charlotte symphony and the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra.
The program's opener, Leos Janácek's Violin Sonata, amply displayed Lee's soaring lyricism, especially his sweet high notes, some of the most beautiful I've heard from any violinist recently. As usual with Janácek, it's a quirky piece, a juxtaposition of tender romanticism and surprisingly abrupt, harsh modern sounds. You don't have the sense, as you do with Mahler or even Schoenberg, of romanticism boiling over into modernity, but rather of modern gestures intruding abruptly into a basically romantic sensibility. It's the kind of music that can seem disorienting or random, but Lee and Weldon made it work by not avoiding its quirkiness, not smoothing out its jarring juxtapositions, but rather playing them up to maximal effect.
Strauss' early Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 18, which closed the concert, also fully displayed Lee's gift for soaring melody. I have never been fond of Strauss, finding it often too sweet and overdramatic, so it's a tribute to Lee and Weldon to say that they completely won me over. Rather than empty bombast, I heard rich, soaring lyrical lines, tenderly burbling arpeggios, and a strong sense of dramatic shape and direction.
Soaring romantic melody is one of Lee's strengths. Another is intense, incisive, aggressive playing, on full display in Witold Lutoslawski's Subito, which opened the second half. Subito, “suddenly,” is an apt title for this spiky, energetic work, which begins abruptly and is full of sudden aggressive gestures. Lee achieved clarity and intensity, giving the piece a hard-edged, driven quality that kept me on the edge of my seat. I realized at this concert that most recent classical and baroque concerts have been in the “period performance” style. Lee's take on Mozart's Sonata in A major, K. 526, was decidedly romantic, and thus jarring at first, but ultimately compelling as Lee brought out its great sense of drama. Mozart performances are often too concerned with being airy and pristine, treating the music like some rare pearl. I've always felt Mozart to be much more human, much more emotional, and fundamentally operatic. Lee and Weldon brought out this sense of drama, with a wide range of character and emotional content. It was only in the dancing third movement that I missed the airy lightness of the “period performance” folks. It felt overwrought. In fact, the only objection I can make to Lee's playing is that it can be too intense too much of the time. There were moments in the Janácek, particularly in the second movement, when Lee started sweetly then favored a more dramatic, intense sound. I wished that he could have stayed longer with that sweet sound, that he had not felt such a need to take it somewhere all the time. While his playing never failed to hold my attention in the Mozart and Strauss as well, I thought at times he could have achieved greater dramatic impact by reining himself in on some of the buildups, creating a more pronounced sense of arrival at the most important spots. This is not to say that Lee fails to play softly: There were many soft, tender moments throughout the evening. It is just that there could have been a greater difference between “loud and intense” and “very loud and intense” — more shape and nuance to his intensity. But this really is a small quibble. Lee is a compelling performer who draws the audience in and keeps them eagerly awaiting more. His playing is direct and dramatic, deeply felt, and technically flawless. And he's only in his mid-twenties, with a fine opportunity to develop in the future.
(Jonathan Russell is a professor of musicianship at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and an editor with PBA Music Publishing. He is active in the Bay Area as a clarinetist, bass clarinetist, and composer.)
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