Karen Gomyo knocks it out of the park with Dvořák in Montreal

Dvořák's Violin Concerto in A minor may not be widely viewed as a barn-burner; nonetheless Karen Gomyo’s top-tier performance brought the house down. Her Orchestre symphonique de Montréal collaborators bought in, matching their soloist's total commitment. The spontaneous give and take between Gomyo and the OSM players made for magical music-making. Conductor John Storgårds, an accomplished violinist in his own right, demonstrated a sagacious degree of attention to detail. Gomyo was particularly illustrious in the sharp stylistic contrasts she attained in the slow movement as well as in the electrifying initial statement of the furiant (a Czech dance) theme of the finale. Gomyo's solo line meshed sublimely with her OSM violin partners; it constituted the best moment in the Dvořák. Kudos to hornists Florence Rousseau and Nadia Coté on their lovely duet. Gomyo's impassioned playing of her Piazzolla encore was breathtaking.

The concerto was preceded by Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture, which unfortunately got off to a shaky start in both the woodwinds and strings. It sounded under-rehearsed and was marred by some inappropriately aggressive timpani and tuba playing.

The Walk to the Paradise Garden is from Delius' opera A Village Romeo and Juliet, which is based on Gottfried Keller's short story. Storgårds' ability to coax lush tones from the strings and the idyllic phrasings of flutist Timothy Hutchins and oboist Alex Liedtke contributed significantly to what was a soothing rendition of this work .

Elgar's Enigma Variations closed the evening. Storgårds wove a connection between the variations' tempi, which generated a laudably cohesive reading, although the stylistic contrasts of the 14 variations could have been more sharply accentuated. Impressive playing by both the strings in the initial statement of the theme and the woodwinds in the playful third variation were meritorious. The famous Nimrod was taken faster than Elgar's Adagio marking, and consequently failed to achieve the ‘goose-bump’ effect that should occur at its climax. However, in the ensuing Intermezzo the transparency attained by Storgårds and his OSM charges was absolutely stunning – a high point of the concert. Hats off to OSM principals Victor Fournelle-Blain (viola) and Todd Cope (clarinet) for their wonderful solo work.

The OSM would be well advised to book both Storgårds and Gomyo for subsequent Montreal appearances.