青春、成長、蛻變的忠實記錄：達連的兩大小提琴協奏曲與獨樹一格的《雲雀飛翔》

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　　看看小提琴家達連（Johan Dalene）最近出版的專輯曲目：孟德爾頌E小調與布魯赫第一號小提琴協奏曲，再加上佛漢威廉斯（Ralph Vaughan Williams）《雲雀飛翔》（The Lark Ascending），相信不少資深愛樂者的第一個想法會是：我們還需要再一版孟德爾頌與布魯赫的小提琴協奏曲嗎？每個小提琴家都會演奏這兩首協奏曲，唱片目錄上也早已名盤如林，不到二十五歲的達連打造「再來一張」的理由為何？三首曲目的錄製時間不一，工作條件也不一樣，這張唱片顯然並非出自一個整體的「概念專輯」計畫，向愛樂者宣示他對這些作品的詮釋定見，相反地，它更像是誠實的記錄，呈現他在不同年紀與條件下，如何面對這些早已相當熟悉，卻始終難以駕馭的經典作品。

　　孟德爾頌小提琴協奏曲錄製於二○二一年四月。當時瑞典正處於新冠肺炎疫情第三波高峰期，政府的防疫政策也由寬鬆轉為嚴格，規定樂團成員之間必須保持較大的社交距離，排練與集結的時間同樣受到限制。在這樣的條件下，傳統由指揮統籌排練與演出的方式並不容易實行，因此最後決定不設置指揮，而是由達連與瑞典廣播交響樂團首席布洛曼（Malin Broman）共同帶領樂團完成演出。

　　這次合作原本是一場無觀眾網路直播，音樂必須先一氣呵成，之後再透過補錄修整細節。換言之，這並非在錄音室理想條件下反覆嘗試、分段琢磨的製作，而是在防疫限制下，兼顧現場演出完整性與唱片品質的折衷做法。在樂團成員彼此拉開距離、沒有指揮即時調度，又必須面對鏡頭完成整場直播演出的情況下，無論對合奏默契、演奏者的專注力與心理穩定度，都無疑比平常有更高的要求。達連坦言，這樣的錄音狀態充滿挑戰性，也正因如此，這次錄音對他而言更像是一段特定時空與艱難條件下的真實紀錄。達連的演奏最引人入勝之處，並不是追求速度或外在的炫目效果，而是對樂句呼吸的細緻處理。他的演奏線條乾淨，音色變化細膩，節奏帶有相當程度的彈性，卻始終保持嚴謹的結構框架。靈活的滑音與精微的音色轉換，讓音樂更多了點活生生的自由度。

　　布魯赫第一號小提琴協奏曲則是二○二四年年初的錄音，當時疫情已經結束，由紐西蘭指揮家潔瑪‧紐（Gemma New）執棒。這部作品本身蘊含極強的情感張力，對獨奏家而言，真正的考驗在於如何在樂團營造的澎湃氛圍中，依然能讓琴聲穩居樂曲核心，並牽引著聽眾的感官。達連顯然不是以煽情取勝。他的演奏維持清楚的線條與節制的語氣，達連的歌唱性在著名的第二樂章顯得內斂而深邃。但是旋律線鋪陳順暢，情感表現不依賴刻意的強化或誇張渲染。

　　最後的《雲雀飛翔》錄於二○二一年秋季，當時瑞典整體疫情相對平穩，音樂會與排練已經基本恢復常態，由普特寧什（Kaspars Putniņš）指揮瑞典廣播交響樂團與瑞典廣播合唱團演出。但是這段錄音無疑是整張唱片中最具爭議的，因為達連採用英國作曲家德雷頓（Paul Drayton）在二○一九年完成的合唱改編版。德雷頓把視角移回英國詩人梅瑞狄斯（George Meredith）的同名長詩，也就是佛漢威廉斯創作《雲雀飛翔》的靈感來源。達連倒不是為了顛覆經典，而是選擇理念上與自己演奏氣質貼近的版本。

　　在此版本中，小提琴旋律大致沿用原作線條，而原本由管弦樂支撐的伴奏，則改以混聲合唱演唱：合唱有時唱出詩句，直接描繪雲雀飛翔的畫面；有時則不唱歌詞，只以拉長的母音交織成和聲背景，取代原本管弦樂的襯托，使整體效果帶有清唱劇般的氣息。對此改編，樂界看法兩極。支持者認為德雷頓擴大了作品的精神層次，帶來更戲劇化的動態對比，反對者則批評德雷頓破壞聽者的想像空間。而我的看法是「畫蛇添足」，人聲的介入讓音樂失焦，反而破壞原曲中小提琴那份凌空欲飛、清新脫俗的空靈感。

　　對一位年僅二十出頭、仍在快速成長的小提琴家來說，這段時間的轉型、蛻變，本來就會反映在演奏裡，也自然成為聆聽時無法忽略的一部分。達連明白，對一名仍在成形中的年輕演奏者來說，四年的差別不只是演奏技巧或細節，而是對音樂整體的理解。重新面對這些作品，他知道自己在某些段落會做出不同的詮釋選擇。但是他接受這些錄音呈現出來的狀態，因為那正是當時的自己。也正因如此，這張專輯並不試圖挑戰歷史上那些經典錄音，它比較像是一份誠實的紀錄：記錄一名年輕小提琴家，如何在早已被無數大師定義的作品中，尋得一條屬於自己、清澈而不喧囂的音樂之路。

Looking at the programme of violinist Johan Dalene’s latest album—Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor and Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, together with Ralph Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending—many experienced listeners may instinctively ask: do we really need yet another recording of the Mendelssohn and the Bruch? These concertos are performed by every violinist, and the catalogue is already crowded with historic and authoritative recordings. Why, then, should a violinist not yet twenty-five feel compelled to add “one more” to the list?

The three works on this album were recorded at different times and under very different circumstances. It is therefore clear that this is not a tightly conceived “concept album” designed to proclaim a single, unified interpretative stance. Rather, it feels like an honest document, capturing how Dalene confronted these deeply familiar yet perpetually challenging classics at different stages of his development and under varying conditions.

The Mendelssohn concerto was recorded in April 2021, at the height of Sweden’s third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. As government policy tightened, orchestral musicians were required to maintain greater physical distance, and rehearsal time was severely restricted. Under such conditions, the traditional rehearsal process led by a conductor proved difficult to realise. In the end, the decision was made to perform without a conductor, with Dalene and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra’s concertmaster, Malin Broman, jointly leading the ensemble.

The project took the form of a livestreamed performance without an audience, recorded in a single continuous run and later refined through patch sessions. This was not a studio production shaped through repeated takes and meticulous sectional work, but a pragmatic compromise—balancing the integrity of a live performance with the demands of a commercial recording. With musicians spaced widely apart, no conductor providing real-time coordination, and the added pressure of performing for cameras, the demands on ensemble cohesion, concentration, and psychological steadiness were undoubtedly higher than usual.

Dalene has spoken candidly about the challenges of these circumstances, and for him the recording represents a truthful document of a particular time and situation. What stands out in his playing is not speed or outward brilliance, but the care he gives to musical breathing. His lines are clean, his tonal palette finely shaded, and his rhythmic flexibility is always held within a firm structural framework. Subtle portamenti and delicate shifts of colour lend the music a sense of living freedom without ever undermining its coherence.

Bruch’s First Violin Concerto was recorded in early 2024, after the pandemic had subsided, with the New Zealand conductor Gemma New. This is a work of intense emotional charge, and for the soloist the real challenge lies in remaining the expressive centre of the music amid the orchestra’s surging sonorities. Dalene does not seek impact through overt sentimentality. His playing remains clear-lined and restrained, with a singing quality that, in the famous Adagio, feels inward and deeply focused. The melodic line unfolds naturally, without relying on exaggerated emphasis or rhetorical display.

The Lark Ascending, recorded in autumn 2021, comes from a period when musical life in Sweden had largely returned to normal. The performance brings together the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Choir, and conductor Kaspars Putniņš. This track is also the most controversial on the album, as Dalene chose the choral arrangement completed in 2019 by the British composer Paul Drayton. Drayton’s version returns explicitly to the source of Vaughan Williams’s inspiration: the poem by George Meredith. Dalene’s motivation was not to overturn a classic, but to engage with a version whose underlying idea he felt was close to his own artistic temperament.

In this arrangement, the solo violin line largely follows Vaughan Williams’s original, while the orchestral accompaniment is replaced by mixed chorus. At times the choir sings Meredith’s text, directly evoking images of the lark in flight; at others, it abandons words altogether, sustaining long vowel sounds that form a harmonic backdrop in place of orchestral texture. The result has something of an oratorio-like character. Reactions to the arrangement have been sharply divided. Supporters argue that it broadens the work’s spiritual horizon and creates stronger dramatic contrasts; critics contend that it narrows the listener’s imaginative space. My own view is that it is a case of over-embellishment: the presence of voices draws attention away from the violin, weakening the music’s sense of airborne stillness and the solo line’s distinctive, unencumbered purity.

For a violinist in his early twenties, still undergoing rapid artistic development, such change and transformation will inevitably be audible in performance and form an inescapable part of the listening experience. Dalene understands that, for a young musician still in the process of becoming, a difference of four years is not merely a matter of technical polish or minor detail, but of a fundamentally altered musical perspective. Returning to these works, he knows that today he might make different interpretative choices in certain passages. Yet he accepts what these recordings reveal, because they represent who he was at that moment in time.

For this reason, the album does not attempt to challenge the great historic recordings of the past. Instead, it functions as an honest record: a portrait of a young violinist finding his own path—clear, unforced, and quietly distinctive—within works that have long been defined by countless masters.

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