Even though he is only 21 years old, Spanish violinist Francisco Garcia-Fullana played the Sibelius Violin Concerto as if he were a seasoned virtuoso. The young violinist made a terrific debut with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra on Saturday afternoon (January 28) at Skyview Concert Hall, interpreting the Sibelius’s music with the technical expertise and emotional insight that made his performance one of the best I’ve ever heard with this orchestra.
Garcia-Fullana, a Masters-degree student at The Juilliard School in New York City, has scored a number of successes as a soloist with a number of orchestras in Europe, including a 2008 performance of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with Sir Colin Davis in Munich. Garcia-Fullana’s appearance with the Vancouver Symphony, under its Music Director Salvador Brotons, was something of a reunion, because Garcia-Fullana has performed with Brotons and the Balearic Islands Symphony Orchestra a few times. There seems to be some excellent chemistry between the two artists, and they communicated with each other superbly, which transferred to the orchestra, which supported him very well throughout the piece.
Garcia-Fullana demonstrated a very in-depth understanding of the Sibelius Violin Concerto. He played the music impeccably, including all of the treacherous runs that ascend into the upper range of his instrument at a frightening speed. The passages that featured a combination of double-stops and single notes were riveting. He executed thrilling sforzandos, subito pianissimos, and could bite into a phrase with intensity. All in all, he expressed the music with outstanding artistry that caused the audience to listen intently.
The audience, which had almost filled the hall to capacity, gave Garcia-Fullana a standing ovation, and he responded with an encore, the first movement from Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor. That was a sublime treat.
The big work on the program was Tchaikovsky’s Third Symphony, an uncharacteristically sunny work that Tchaikovsky wrote during the summer of 1875. Some of the fastest passages got a little blurred, but Brotons and the orchestra interpreted the piece with direction and focus, generating applause after each movement finished. Some tighter ensemble playing and softer pianissimos would have helped to make the orchestral effort even better. Highlights of the performance included contributions from the principal bassoon, principal horn, and principal oboe. Brotons directed the entire piece from memory.
The concert began with the “Polonaise” from Tchaikovsky’s opera “Eugene Onegin,” but I didn’t get to hear it from inside the concert hall, because the bridge between Vancouver and Portland was up. However, I did get to hear the piece while standing in the hallway, and the orchestra seemed to give it a robust performance.
It would be wonderful to hear Garcia-Fullana again with the Vancouver Symphony, especially in another program conducted by Brotons.
James Bash writes articles for a variety of publications, including magazines such as Opera America, Open Spaces, Opera, MUSO, International Arts Manager, American Record Guide, Symphony, Opera Canada, and PSU Magazine. The newspapers include Crosscut, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Oregonian, The Columbian, The Portland Tribune, The Register-Guard, and Willamette Week. James has also written a number of articles for the Oregon Arts Commission and contributed articles to the 2nd edition of the Grove Dictionary of American Music. James was a fellow to the 2008 NEA Journalism Institute for Classical Music and Opera. He is a member of the Music Critics Association of North America (mcana.org) and lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, Kathy.
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