Live performance reviews

Violinist wows with skill, charisma

She played Bach with her eyes closed and body loose, as if in musical rapture. Only after the presto in the Partita did St. John pause to breathe: A deep guttural gasp that punctuated her seamless movement from ethereal pure tones to raucous, virtuosic thrashing.

Violinist Lara St. John offered a breathtaking performance of the rarely heard Second Violin Concerto by Dmitri Shostakovich.

St. John's personal style of complete physical engagement with the music elicited an explosive response from the audience...

Violinist, conductor highlight superb MSO concert

Acclaimed violinist Lara St. John was superb as she displayed her mastery of the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 at the Saturday night performance at the Midland Center for the Arts

The passion of Lara St. John for classical music made her solo Bach recital memorable

Best concert of the year..."A close-to-symphonic tone, a personal way with a phrase: Such artistry defeats all questions of historical correctness," wrote I, struggling to deal specifically with playing that seemed global in impact.

Suite proves to be perfect for violinist, symphony

With the violin as her voice, she commands our attention, and the music we hear is the music she would have us hear. Moments of 17th-century reflection are found alongside striking bursts of 20th-century modernism, and both come to our ears convincingly interpreted.

Leonard Bernstein comes alive at Civic Center

Guest violinist Lara St. John received something more than polite applause for her intense solo effort in "The Red Violin."...In some ways, this piece was perfect for this remarkable soloist...

Passionate St. John shows her mettle with violin concerto

Lara St. John’s career blossomed in the 1990s, but it took some time for the press and the public to see beyond the statuesque violinist’s early, seductive press photos and to hear that she was actually a high-level artist.

Any remaining doubters should have been convinced Saturday by her performance of the dark and captivatingly lyrical Sibelius Violin Concerto, with good partnership by Franz and the BPO. It’s a work that often contrasts icy upper register serenity with precipitous descents into the violin’s brooding low end, all of which St. John negotiated with great technical skill and searing lyrical intensity.

Violinist brings sensuous soul to exotic eve at orchestra

...Lara St. John lit sparkles from her 1779 "Salabue" Guadagnini violin with a teasing and witty attitude.

I mean "attitude" in a dramatic sense. We could almost see St. John's defiant behavior in her dialogue with the orchestra, in particular when she accentuated her short statements. Her singular interpretation of Mozart's "Turkish" Concerto No. 5 combined Romantic affect and tremendous technical skills. With a mind of her own, she conveyed personality and a distinctive edginess.

"Power and Glory"

The Montreal High Lights Festival inaugurated its classical programming Thursday with Lara St. John, a violinist once known for her eye-popping cover art and aggressive style. That was the 1990s. The blonde playing Bach in the Bonsecours Chapel was a serious musician, and of the highest order.

A close-to-symphonic tone, a personal way with a phrase: Such artistry defeats all questions of historical correctness. If an interpretation that plumbs the depths and scales the heights of the famous Chaconne is not authentic, what is?

It was interesting to hear St. John project sustained notes without vibrato, not to attenuate the sound but to expand it. The fugue of the Sonata No. 3 was masterful both intellectually and technically. The double of the Courante from the Partita No. 1 was astonishing. What velocity and bravura!

St. John dedicated the Sonata to a friend whose death she learned of only that afternoon. Is this why the recital was so powerfully conceived and expressed? Only about 70 people were present, but they will not soon forget the experience.