Solo violinist demands orchestra in the Rohrmeisterei

With the third anniversary festival concert this year, the Ruhrstadtorchester celebrated its 30th anniversary in the Rohrmeisterei. Solo violinist Fedor Rudin gave the performance a special shine.

“Milestones of classical music” promised Kapellmeister Claus Eickhoff with the title of the event. He began with Mozart’s “Ave Verum” in an instrumental transcription by Tchaikovsky.

A suite by Bach with a number of old dances followed, and finally Mozart again, this time in the original, with the Haffner Symphony. Eickhoff put all this on stage with lots of wood, brass and timpani.

In the fugato of the Bach overture, it was the babbling bassoon that caught the eye, but the symphony started with a lot of timpani, roamed through calmly flowing moments that soon became energetically soaring, reached a new timpani beat and a rapid finale in a narrative style.

The interlude to the third act of Verdi’s “La Traviata” began tenderly and touchingly. With the use of the wind instruments, the violins finally introduced the concise melody that Hans Blum, alias Henry Valentino, used in his 1974 hit “I saw your knee”.

Excursion to the world of opera

The short excursion into the world of opera was the right start for the performance of the soloist. Fedor Rudin, who held the position of concertmaster with the Vienna Philharmonic until 2021, had his first performance in Schwerte as a student. Today the freelancer tours Europe as a soloist and chamber musician on the violin, but also as a conductor.

He opened Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto in the highest register with elaborate double stops. Distinctive strokes and an expressive urge to move characterize his playing in the first movement. The orchestra followed him with the oarbeat of a galley.

Eickhoff at the podium gave everything, but unimpressed, Rodin drove the action forward with rapid runs, alone engrossed in his game. Full of expectation, he presented his virtuoso sequences of notes to the flourishing melody arcs in the Adagio. Contrasting dialogue alone in the solo, rich colors with transfigured flute and horn sounds in the orchestra led to the artist’s tremolo tonality.

Cheers and standing ovations

The final movement, with its fast-paced question and answer game, showed once again how much the soloist was challenging the orchestra, even driving it ahead of him. A haunting and emphatic bravura piece for Rodin as well as the Ruhrstadtorchester. He modestly played down the Bruch concert as a childhood memory that had not been played for a long time.

The artist, who was born in Moscow and grew up in Paris, thanked the applause with a Paganini Caprice as an encore: calm at first, but almost exclusively in double stops, he finally shone with runs of devilish speed. This once again earned him bravo calls and a standing ovation.