Reviews
Various Reviews
APR 26, 2010 Parker, Ling Take Beethoven to New Heights
NOV 15, 2009 Jon Kimura Parker Shines from Beethoven to Billy Joel Scena
JUL 23, 2009 Pianist Jon Kimura Parker and violinist James Ehnes perform in one of finest concerts of the year Toronto Star
JUN 22, 2009 Rains fail to dampen fervor of Grant Park’s Burnham premiere Chicago Tribune
JUN 20, 2009 With unplanned weather, Torke’s “Plans” receives ardent if soggy premiere Chicago Classical Review
MAY 23, 2009 San Diego Symphony finely attuned to Gershwin San Diego News Network
DEC 8, 2008 Harrell, Parker show is tops; THE BEST: Recital was the most beautiful performance in 20 years. Anchorage Daily News
NOV 14, 2008 Symphony shines on Russian… Continue reading
Parker, Ling take Beethoven to new heights
Jon Kimura Parker performs with the San Diego Symphony during the Beethoven Festival on Saturday night at Copley Symphony Hall.
REVIEW | 04.26.10 | By James Chute, | San Diego Union-Tribune Arts Editor The last time Jon Kimura Parker was in town, it was for the La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, when he put on a Star Trek uniform, joined in a multipianist version of the theme from the iconic TV show, and even did a memorable impression of McCoy, exclaiming, “Dammit Jim, I’m a concert pianist, not a …”
Saturday at Copley Symphony Hall for the belated opening of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra’s Beethoven Festival, Parker boldly went where few men have gone before, substituting for an ailing Yefim Bronfman.
Jon Kimura Parker Shines from Beethoven to Billy Joel
REVIEW | 11.15.09 | By L.H. Tiffany Hsieh | Scena Once in a while, a concert pianist comes across as both virtuoso and versatile. That was the case at Koerner Hall on Nov. 8. The pianist was Canada’s own Jon Kimura Parker, whose afternoon recital began with two well-known Beethoven sonatas.
The Pathétique (Op. 13) and Appassionata (Op. 57) are two of Beethoven’s most beloved piano sonatas. Parker played both pieces with conviction and a clear sense of structures that kept the big picture in focus.
With Beethoven, rests are just as important as notes, and while Parker’s rests seemed peculiarly long at times (for example, the Grave in Pathétique), they created extra tension and drama in the beautiful, intimate Koerner Hall. The sound he produced from the shiny black Steinway was warm and luminous, but the contrast in dynamics was overwhelmed at times, especially in loud crescendos. The slow movements were simple and lovely, his voicing and tonal imagination unmatched. Continue reading
Pianist Jon Kimura Parker and violinist James Ehnes perform in one of finest concerts of the year
James Ehnes, Violinist
REVIEW | 07.23.09 | Toronto Star Serious music usually takes a summertime break in Toronto. But that didn’t stop an upstart downtown festival from giving us one of the finest concerts of the year Tuesday night.
It took 15 years for two Canadian stars – pianist Jon Kimura Parker and violinist James Ehnes – to co-ordinate their performing schedules. Given the spectacular results at the Carlu (the once-legendary Eaton Auditorium), one can only hope that this was the beginning of a long and frequent collaboration.
The duo opened the fourth annual Toronto Summer Music Academy & Festival, which runs to Aug. 13.
Organizers could not have picked a finer way to showcase the quality of musician that artistic director Agnes Grossman has attracted. Continue reading
Rains fail to dampen fervor of Grant Park’s Burnham premiere
REVIEW | 06.22.09 | Chicago Tribune As if heeding a Daniel Burnham-esque call for renewed civic dedication in the face of adversity, a hardy band of listeners stuck out a drenching thunderstorm to witness the world premiere of a new Burnham-inspired oratorio Friday night in Millennium Park.
This Grant Park Music Festival event gave a soggy send-off to the yearlong celebration of the 100th anniversary of the architect’s Plan of Chicago. A noisy cloudburst cleared the Great Lawn and forced many to seek shelter at the back of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion.
While it was hardly the most auspicious launch for “Plans,” American composer Michael Torke’s oratorio drew a committed performance from the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus, and vocal soloists, under Carlos Kalmar’s direction. City and state dignitaries, including Governor Pat Quinn and Mayor Richard M. Daley (heard via tape recording), lent their imprimatur to the kickoff. Continue reading
With unplanned weather, Torke’s “Plans” receives ardent if soggy premiere
REVIEW | 06.20.2009 | Chicago Classical Review
It’s always a great idea to make big plans, but it’s sometimes difficult when the weather doesn’t cooperate.
The Grant Park Music Festival premiered Plans by Michael Torke Friday night, a work commissioned by the festival as part of the city-wide events marking the centennial of Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago.
A raging thunderstorm and heavy rains drenched Millennium Park during the performance, yet, in the game tradition of Burnham, the show went on, with many hardy souls remaining in the exposed seats bundled up under umbrellas. Continue reading
San Diego Symphony finely attuned to Gershwin
REVIEW |05.23.09 | San Diego News Network Today and tomorrow mark the San Diego Symphony’s final performances in this season’s Jacobs’ Masterworks Series at downtown’s Copley Symphony Hall. That means you have just two more chances to hear music director Jahja Ling and the orchestra join pianist Jon Kimura Parker in what is surely one of the finest interpretations of Gershwin’s Concerto in F that the orchestra has ever presented.
How do I know? I attended last night’s performance of the appealingly eclectic program, which includes Harbison’s “Remembering Gatsby: Foxtrot for Orchestra” and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2.
Harbison’s “Foxtrot” – a skillful blend of dark sonorities and 1920’s-style party music – is part of a larger orchestra work by the composer who also wrote an opera based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel. A man sitting near me was so taken by the dance band beat that he couldn’t resist tapping his feet. Continue reading
Harrell, Parker show is tops; THE BEST: Recital was the most beautiful performance in 20 years.
Lynn Harrell, Cello
REVIEW | 12.08.08 | Anchorage Daily News If you missed the recital by Lynn Harrell and Jon Kimura Parker on Saturday, I grieve for you.
The Anchorage Concert Association-sponsored program by cellist Harrell and pianist Parker should have taken place in a more intimate space than Atwood Concert Hall; but the Discovery Theatre was occupied.
The hangar-size hall was about half full, so the mezzanine and balcony were closed and everyone moved to the main floor for what turned out to be a magical evening by two of music’s most generous souls.
I could write rhapsodically about the warm and sensitive sound of Brahms’ First Cello Sonata, the precision of the counterpoint in its finale and the unity of spirit and rhythm in Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 4, which followed. Either and both were among the cream of performances ever given in our city. Continue reading
Symphony shines on Russian sojourn
REVIEW | 11.14.08 | Houston Chronicle
The sunny side of Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky - that’s the guiding principle, more or less, of this weekend’s Houston Symphony program at Jones Hall.
The program showcases merry, comparatively early compositions of two Russian masters more readily identified with somber and melancholy works, such as Shostakovich’s Babi Yar Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique.
Even more unexpectedly, this musical sojourn through Russia also includes a brief detour to East Texas. Don’t ask how, but it all seemed to fit together perfectly at Thursday’s opening of the program, which repeats tonight and Sunday. Continue reading
Orchestra’s surprising encore a perfect fit
REVIEW | 07.24.08 | Philadelphia Inquirer
Choosing an encore can be a squidgy business, and on a night such as Tuesday at the Mann Center, with the air still vibrating from a voluble Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1, pianist Jon Kimura Parker offered exactly what was least expected: a quiet Joplin rag called Solace.
It was a risk. The Mann’s lawns were thickly populated for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s annual all-Tchaikovsky program and fireworks – or rather, fireworks and all-Tchaikovsky – and crowds were already milling about when Parker started his encore.
But Solace‘s contemplation, it turns out, was just what this moment needed. For three or four minutes, a bittersweet rag served as a compelling foil to the brass fanfares and cannon blasts of the rest of the evening. Continue reading
