Toronto Symphony Orchestra / Patricia Kopatchinskaja / Gustavo Gimeno

In Béla Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 1, Kopatchinskaja displays the full range of her captivating playing, from delicate lyrical touches to highly virtuosic snarls. She is joined by a congenial partner in the orchestra, which provides biting commentary but also repeatedly blossoms into rapturous passages.

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra and its principal conductor complement the brilliance of the first half after the interval with Gustav Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. It oscillates between amiable elegance and forward-looking power and touches the listener with an Adagio that seems to have floated down directly from paradise. Christina Landshamer concludes the symphony and the concert with a tongue-in-cheek vision of heaven, a paradise reminiscent of the land of milk and honey as a counterpoint to the ugly reality – something we could all use a bit of these days!