Violinist swayin' all over the place

Violinist Gordan Nikolić made a huge impression with his big-hearted playing when he was here with the London Symphony Orchestra last week—he's the concertmaster—and the lanky, twitching player can be seen to great effect in this video of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante, K. 364, with violinist Julia Fischer. (He plays viola.) Nikolić is the only violinist who will be played by David Koechner when his biopic is made, and watching him and Fischer play keeps summoning pictures of Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett to my mind. Can't figure out why. There's a great moment at 2:01 in Part 2 of the recording where Nikolić bows to Fischer, only to remember that it's his turn to play, and not hers.

So anyway, Nikolić and Fischer have YouTube goodness, Richard Ford has a perceptive essay on sports in the NYT, Zack has a bracingly blasphemous (and racist!) post on Fool's Gold Coast, and I have copy to edit and deadlines that probably ought to be adhered to.

Playlist

Russian National Orchestra Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 and Ode to the End of the War. Vladimir Jurowski, conductor (Pentatone)

Michael Hersch The Vanishing Pavilions. Hersch, piano (Vanguard Classics)

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Dvorak and Beethoven (CMS)

The Harlem Experiment Don Byron, clarinet and tenor saxophone; Steven Bernstein, trumpet; Olu Dara, trumpet and vocals; more (Ropeadope)

Standards Trio My Foolish Heart. Keith Jarret, piano; Gary Peacock, bass; Jack DeJohnette, drums (ECM)

Fall of Snow Right. (self-released)

Julia Fischer Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante, Concertone (with Gordan Nikolić), Rondo. Netherlands Chamber Orchestra; Yakov Kreizberg, conductor (Pentatone)