The violinist Julia Fischer is artist-in-residence with the London Philharmonic this spring. Her first group of concerts with the orchestra focusses on Mozart, with all five of his solo-violin concertos spread across three programmes. In the second of them, with Thomas Søndergård conducting, she played the fifth concerto, in A major, K219, as well as the Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola, K364.
There is no doubting the technical security of Fischer’s playing, nor the understated authority of her musicianship. But her account of the concerto was unsmiling and short on charm. With rather curt, peremptory phrasing, emotions kept on the shortest rein and little inclination to relish moments of lyricism even in the central Adagio, it was all oddly joyless.
