VIOLINIST JOHAN DALENE FULLY DELIGHTS IN HIS CANADIAN DEBUT
Johan Dalene (violin), Sahun Sam Hong (piano): Music of Schumann, Grieg, Rautavaara, Ravel and Lutosławski, Vancouver Playhouse, March 23, 2025.
This recital was Johan Dalene’s Canadian debut, and I’m sure his many newly-minted followers were not disappointed. The 24-year-old Swedish/Norwegian violinist displayed superb command over his instrument and a very natural and direct assimilation of the music he played. Winner of the 2019 Carl Nielsen Prize, and awarded ‘Young Artist of the Year’ by Gramophone in 2022, Dalene’s interview in the latter suggested that he was inspired by both Jascha Heifetz and David Oistrakh. In this concert, Dalene’s natural radiance, cleanness of articulation, bow control, and intuitive sense of line seemed to take him more towards Heifetz, especially as accompanied by young American pianist Sahun Sam Hong, who is very attentive and exact. The violin sonatas of Schumann and Grieg were variably successful, but Dalene’s well-known ability to sustain quiet lines with great feeling was evident in Rautavarra’s ‘Notturno’. His Heifetz-like intensity and magnetism were certainly revealed in the Lutoslawski Partita and the long-time showstopper, Ravel’s Tzigane.
For all one usually notes the purity and beauty at the top of Dalene’s instrument, it was the lovely rich bottom, propelling a buoyant lyrical flow, that impressed in the opening movement of Schumann’s Violin Sonata no. 1. This was a very romantic treatment, but quite successful since it attempted to identify the struggle and determination in the writing alongside its sweet ardour. The following Intermezzo was equally perceptive: touching and human, and aware of the composer’s fragility. The finale is a passionate, driving movement and here both artists seemed committed to keep the music pushing forward throughout all its dynamic gyrations. Perhaps this conveyed the impetuousness of ‘late’ Schumann (recall that he was entering his period of severe mental instability), but from the standpoint of musical clarity, the movement needed to breathe more and secure more lyrical give in transitions. While the final movement looked a bit like youthful exuberance running away with itself, the overall attempt was laudable.
Ironically, for a violinist with Norwegian roots, Grieg’s Violin Sonata No. 2 turned out be less interesting. While finely articulated and dramatically strong, I found it on the cold side, lacking fragrance. It seemed reluctant to mine the underlying tenderness and playfulness in the music, especially in the first two movements, which stressed brilliance over charm. Part of this character flowed from the piano side: Hong is a very precise pianist but not one often given to poetic expansion or coaxing nuance. There were doubtlessly fine moments in Dalene’s more purposive approach, but one might turn to fellow Norwegian Henning Kraggerud’s lovely reading, recorded on Naxos when he was about the same age as Dalene, for a greater appreciation of the expressive range in this work.
Einojuhani Rautavaara’s ‘Notturno’ is a short nostalgic piece of austere beauty, written in 1993. It sometimes reminds me of Fauré in its consuming flow and longing. This performance was definitely a highlight: Dalene illuminated its long cantabile lines with remarkable purity of line and intimacy of feeling. Anyone would be seduced by this! Particularly notable was the violinist’s ability to suspend very soft passages with great concentration, something we have already seen in his performances of the Nielsen Violin Concerto. The composer’s more brightly-lit ‘Danza’ provided the contrast and featured precision fiddling of the highest order.
The Lutoslawski Partita (1984) was likely the best collaboration between the artists, not least because it suited the pianist’s more objectivist style. One could tell how much Hong relished the hammered chords and being able to lay down other abstract musical punctuations in stone. The work is in five movements, played continuously, with the second and fourth movements being only brief ad libitum interludes. It fuses minimalist and romantic idioms, and is quite accessible.
The piece offers a veritable clinic on violin techniques, ranging from the most ripping sforzandi to feather-light ostinato, with material that varies from the fragmented to quieter lyrical expansion and uncompromising Bartókian density. Dalene was marvellous in the range of tone colours exhibited and in his sheer flexibility in tossing off its stream of technical challenges. His quick and light playing was as noteworthy as his strong dramatic attack, and he moved fluently between the more passionate, animated sequences and the quietest soliloquies. In fact, one outstanding quality of Dalene’s playing in general is his ability to alter his dynamics, tempo and emotional postures on a moment’s notice and still maintain a feeling of continuity of line. And he does all this with such apparent ease.
The crowd pleaser was Ravel’s ever-popular Tzigane. It certainly had the requisite fireworks and passion to blow everyone away but I was also impressed with its thoughtful balance over the whole. The encore was Grażyna Bacewicz’s playful ‘Humoreska’.
This concert was a most satisfying display of the range of Johan Dalene’s unique talents, and I’m sure we are all looking forward to a return engagement very soon.
© Geoffrey Newman 2025