Sublime Performances!
by
Lyn Bronson
Violinist Gil Shaham is amazing! His effortless virtuosity
consists of an easy mastery that seems to know no obstacles. His intonation is
dead on, even in double stops and octaves, and his skill in building a phrase to
extraordinary levels of intensity, or delicately bringing it down to the almost
inaudible (but always musical), is uncanny. And, the way Shaham brings all of
his skills together in the service of the music he performs is what ultimately
impresses us the most. It should also be
mentioned that Shaham’s stage presence is totally natural. There are no profound
glances toward the heavens, no distracting mannerisms, or any other extraneous
gestures that might divert our attention away from the music. Quite the
contrary, we were often aware, especially in softer passages and melodies, how
intensely and quietly he was listening to his own music making.
Equally impressive was pianist Akira Eguchi, who was
Shaham’s partner in much of the music making we heard last night at Sunset
Center in the Carmel Music Society’s first concert of 2008. Eguchi impressed us
with his extraordinary technical mastery and elegant musicianship. Together
Shaham and Eguchi gave us music making at an exalted level!
The greatest surprise on the program was the opening work,
William Walton’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, written in 1950 for Yehudi
Menuhin. This is a complex work with sensuous musical lines, some contrapuntal
writing, irresistible rhythmic drive at its conclusion and overall a lovely
transparency that Shaham and Eguchi exploited to magnificent effect. The
melodies that emerged from the violin and the piano in the first movement were
gorgeous, and the variations in the second movement were full of pleasing
designs and textures. The brief coda that ended the piece was a knockout!
Shaham played one work on the program without Eguchi, and
that was the Sonata for Unaccompanied Violin in A minor, BWV. 1003 by Bach. In
this work we heard Shaham at his most magical. Textures were clear, musical
patterns made sense and throughout there was an impeccable logic. Shaham’s sound
was so gorgeous that every note was beautiful.
Such extraordinary Bach playing made you want to hear him perform the
great Chaconne from the D minor
Partita for Unaccompanied Violin.
We heard another surprise after intermission as Shaham and
Eguchi performed Rodrigo’s Sonata
Pimpante. The beautiful melody
of the first movement on the violin was surrounded by gorgeous sounds from the
piano and together it was utterly beguiling. After the second movement with its
dark Moorish quality (and some spooky harmonics and an agitated Gypsy dance
thrown in), the last movement was a virtuoso
tour de force that blew us away.
The concert ended with three works by Sarasate:
Zapateado, Romanza Andaluza and
Zigeunerweisen.
In the Zapateado, Shaham
treated us to magical wizardry of fabulous technical displays, expressive fast
moving melodies and the greatest and most in-tune harmonics I have ever heard.
Wow! In the Romanza Andaluza that
followed we heard Gypsy music played so emotionally it could have wrung tears
from a stone.
Ending the program was an over-the-top performance of
Zigeunerweisen that contained every
trick in the violin repertoire – fabulous passage work, fantastically in-tune
harmonics, Gypsy melodies, Gypsy sliding glissandos, and heart wrenching
accelerandos that made the pulse run faster. Wow!
In response to a huge standing ovation, Shaham and Eguchi
returned for one encore – an arrangement of the Brahms Hungarian Dance for Piano
Four Hands in G Minor. It was so Gypsy-like, that it almost seemed to be an
extension of Zigeunerweisen.
