Caroline Goulding, who in August turned 20, returns to her home state, joining the symphony in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto at the Midland Center for the Arts, 1801 W. St. Andrews.

Mendelssohn Revisited begins at 7 p.m. with a Prelude lecture led by Rattay, followed by the concert at 8 p.m. Tickets, available at the box office, by calling 800-523-7649 or online at mcfta.org, cost $36 and $28 for adults and $11 for students.

“Mendelssohn is very special to me,” said Goulding, who has performed with some of the most prestigious orchestras in the world. “He is definitely one of my favorites and though I’ve played the Violin Concerto so many times through the years, it’s always fun to come across the cadenza in the middle of the work instead of the end.”

Also on the program are Bartok’s “Romanian Folk Dances” and “Dances of Transylvania” and Mozart’s Symphony No. 39.

“When I was a little girl, I was so captivated by my brothers, who played the saxophone and the trumpet,” Goulding remembered. “I was only 3 ½ but my parents, who were very supportive from the start, asked me if I wanted to study the violin or the piano.

“I thought the violin looked like a guitar, so that’s what I chose,” she said.

While she hesitates to call herself a child prodigy, Goulding began what she calls a natural progression through lessons as a preschooler and professional performances with major orchestras at 9.

“I loved to play,” she said. “I was very passionate about it, and I was really lucky to be surrounded by supportive people. It was exciting.”

Her family moved when she was 12 to Toledo, Ohio, from St. Clair County and she now lives in Boston while attending the New England Conservatory of Music. With a primary focus on classical music, she’s strayed into Cape Breton Celtic on occasion.

And it’s the classics that brought her to the attention of the Detroit Symphony, the Cleveland Pops, the Toronto Symphony and the London Symphony, among many others, and to solo recitals everywhere from Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center to the Kennedy Center and Beijing’s Forbidden City Concert Hall.

“I love to travel,” she said. Even more, Goulding loves to play.

“It’s an incredible experience for me, almost like a spiritual performance,” she said. “Whether I’m in a recital, an orchestra or a chamber group, it’s a feeling that I can’t put in words.

“In everything, in my music and myself as a person, I have to remain honest. People appreciate honesty and they naturally gravitate toward those people.”

In Boston, Goulding said, she is expanding her repertoire and gathering inspiration from the various composers. And in turn, she said, “I want to inspire others while continuing to find the people who inspire me. While I develop my own style, I’m still there to bring the composers work to the best light.”

She’s also experimenting with different violins, moving from General Kyd Stradivarius, built in 1720 and named for a British general, to an Amati built in 1537.

http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/saginaw/index.ssf/2012/11/a_young_violin_virtuoso_joins.html

“It’s on temporary loan,” she said. “The differences in violins are very intriguing to me. There’s still so much to experience.”

And about those brothers who started it all, “neither one plays now,” she said. “But they’re really in to music. They’re always there for me.”

The MSO served up a musical feast Saturday night to delight even the most jaded concertgoer, proving that the season-opening performance in October was no fluke.

Music Director Bohuslav Rattay led the players through a Mozart symphony, two sets of dances by Bela Bartok and Mendelssohn’s violin concerto – a nice mix of pieces with plenty of pleasing melodies. The concert was in the Midland Center for the Arts Auditorium.

Young, Michigan-born violinist Caroline Goulding joined the MSO for the Mendelssohn concerto. Her energetic performance was technically proficient throughout but really caught fire in the final movement. She blazed through the final coda in a frenzy that brought the audience to its feet. An extended standing ovation brought loud applause and even cheers for the soloist.

The MSO kept pace at every step, offering a sterling performance that allowed Goulding to shine.

The orchestra got its own chance to shine in Mozart’s Symphony No. 39, an exquisite gem that showcased the composer’s hallmark precision and order in service of genius.

Rattay conducted the Mozart without a score, using his whole body to move this way and that, obviously feeling the music and communicating that feeling to the orchestra.

Noticeably, some of the players responded in kind, literally leaning in to the music as Rattay guided them along. It was a fascinating display of musical collaboration. This sense of shared purpose was also communicated by Rattay’s decision to stand on the stage at the same level as the players instead of standing on a podium.

Rattay has added a spark that seems to have lifted the ensemble a notch, not in terms of the players’ already obvious skill but in terms of their enjoyment of what they’re doing. That enjoyment is infectious and is making this season a treat.

Also of note in Saturday’s concert were the Bartok dances. In fact, they were something of a revelation. The “Romanian Folk Dances,” written in 1915, and the “Dances of Transylvania,” orchestrated in 1931, were enchanting and delightful.

The Romanian dances were by turns haunting and lively, with the concluding “Fast Dances” especially winning. These traditional melodies, collected by Bartok about 100 years ago, were colorful and evocative.

Similarly, the briefer, strings-only “Dances of Transylvania” brought together peasant dances that Bartok collected during the same period. Charming and full-bodied, these works deserve a wide audience.

http://www.ourmidland.com/news/article_1889b8dc-5519-5895-a3c6-736a4971db63.html

Read more

Read more