Toronto Star, February 26, 2001

Violinist, conductor in harmony

John Lehr
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

with Charles Olivieri-Munroe

Saturday's Toronto Symphony Orchestra concert at Roy Thomson Hall had no special title, but it could have been called The Return of the Natives, for both conductor and soloist were young Canadians now living and working mostly outside the country.

Though violinist Lara St. John is no stranger to Toronto stages, she currently makes New York her home base. (Her brother Scott, having made a more permanent return, now teaches here and will be playing this Friday with Amici at the Glenn Gould Studio.) Conductor Charles Olivieri-Munroe, who made his TSO debut with this concert, now resides in Prague. A decade ago he was a student at U of T.

The program they played was part of the light classics series, but, though that suggests easy-listening, it doesn't mean that the pieces were technically undemanding.

For her part, St. John swept through Sarasate's fiendish Zigeunerweisen like fire through prairie grass, rendering the sinuous sensuality and dancing frenzy of its gypsy moods with equal aplomb. Olivieri-Munroe and the orchestra deftly accompanied her.

Both he and St. John brimmed with confidence and revelled in their mastery of their craft. Above all, they enjoyed making music. And that was the principal reason the large Thomson Hall audience welcomed them back to Toronto so warmly.