“Gluzman’s Tchaikovsky Exceptional! What really electrified the audience on this night was not the Hill premiere, but an exceptional performance of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. This familiar music turns up nearly every season on symphony programs and its well-crafted combination of virtuosity and great tunes makes it almost a sure-fire crowd-pleaser, but the piece doesn’t play itself. It still takes a great violinist, a talented conductor and an attentive orchestra to make it work. We had all three in this performance. Vadim Gluzman played with rich tone, impeccable technical skill and obvious love for the music. Undoubtedly, he had some help from the instrument he played – a Stradivarius once owned by Leopold Auer, the very man for whom Tchaikovsky wrote the piece. Auer, who originally deemed the concerto “unplayable,” later became one of its foremost exponent. Gluzman’s performance was compelling from beginning to end, with a particularly thrilling rendition of the last movement; it really doesn’t have to go that fast, but Gluzman made it work.”