When I received this disk I knew that I knew the name of Dylana
Jenson from somewhere but I couldn’t place her. After looking
at her website I realised that she’s been on the concert platform
from the age of 8, making her Carnegie Hall debut when only
20, with the Sibelius Concerto and subsequently recording
it with Ormandy and the Philadelphia. This was RCA's first major
classical music production recorded in digital sound. She studied
with Milstein and Josef Gingold, hence her great lyrical, singing,
quality, and she plays on a fiddle built in 1995, which Jenson
commissioned from Samuel Zygmuntowicz, a violin-maker working
in Brooklyn, NY, which he based on an instrument made by Guarnerius
del Gesu. She comes from an artistic family, her sister, Vicky,
directed the films Shrek and Shark Tale, and her
brother Ivan is a painter and poet. She is married to conductor
David Lockington and their daughter, Mariama Lockington, is
a Hopwood award-winning poet.
And so to this disk. There is no doubting Jenson’s virtuosity
and understanding of these two major 20th century
Concertos. Shostakovich’s work is dark and brooding in its two
big slow movements, and Jenson brings an intensity to her playing
which is perfect for the composer’s private, internal, vision.
The scherzo is full of nervous energy and the finale, although
a kind of festive dance still has deeper undercurrents, and
Jenson never loses sight of the intent of the music. The work
was writtten for David Oistrakh and his recordings cannot be
ignored (for me, the best being, the live recording of the American
premiere with the New York Philharmonic, under Mitropulous (1
January 1956) (NYP 9701 – part of a 10 disk set of live NYPO
performances available direct from the orchestra’s website),
with the Philharmonia under Rozhdestvensky, live at the Edinburgh
Festival (7 September 1962) (BBC Legends BBCL 4060-2), or, for
more modern sound, with the New Philharmonia conducted by Maxim
Shostakovich (rec. 25 November 1972) (part of a three CD set
of Shostakovich Concertos EMI Classics 5 09428 2), but Jenson
has more than sufficient authority to stamp her own personality
on the performance. This is a very fine one and it makes one
want to hear her in Shostakovich’s Second Concerto.
The coupling is most welcome. Barber’s late-romantic Concerto
has long held a place in many great violinists’ repertoires,
and recorded performances have ranged from Isaac Stern’s overtly
adoring account, with the New York Philharmonic, under Bernstein
(Sony :074646450628, coupled with Maxwell Davies’s Concerto)
to less hot-housed interpretations by Gil Shaham, with the LSO
under Previn (Deutsche Grammophon 289 439 8862 9, coupled with
the Korngold Concerto). Jenson steers a course between
the two approaches and achieves an unsentimental, classically-formed
interpretation, which suits the music, for this is the work
of a young man. She even makes the moto perpetuo finale
seems slightly better, and thus more satisfying, than it really
is, which is no mean feat!
The recording is very good, but the soloist is placed very far
forward, sometimes at the expense of the orchestra, which is
well directed by Jenson’s husband. I would have welcomed a better
balance between the two. Nevertheless, these are fine interpretations
and are worth having, particularly as the coupling is unusual,
but very interesting, and the playing is excellent. There are
no notes. The CD can be bought from Dylana
Jenson’s website for $14.99. A bargain!
Bob Briggs
Dylana Jenson (violin) 
