Master Violinist Shows us How
by
Lyn Bronson
Last night California Summer Music showcased three talented
young violinists in a violin master class conducted by Zaven Melikian.
Melikian, a distinguished violinist, is also a colorful raconteur and
entertained us by peppering his instruction with anecdotes about great
violinists like Heifetz, Milstein and Kreisler, plus a few wicked stories about
conductors. And, he didn’t just talk, for he occasionally picked up his fiddle
and demonstrated fine points of virtuosity and musicianship as it relates to
violin playing. These moments were impressive, for he proved over and over again
that he can get a gorgeous big sound and always seemed to know the best place on
the string to place and draw his bow.
Kevin Chen & Zaven Melikian
The first performer of the evening was
Kevin Chen, 16, a pupil of Melikian
and a junior at University High School in Fresno, where he is active in his
school orchestra and was concertmaster of the All-State Honors Orchestra in
2006. Kevin performed the first movement of the Vieuxtemps Concerto No. 5 in A
Minor, Op. 37, with pianist Timothy Bach playing the orchestra reduction. After
his exciting performance, the first thing Melikian said to him was, “When you go
out on stage, you know one thing for sure. You are going to play faster than you
ever thought was possible. Play under
tempo, and it is more likely to come out just right.” Not too long into the
first movement, the music became expressive, and Melikian told Kevin, “In the
opening section, you have shown you are a virtuoso, now show everybody what a
good musician you are.” He stressed that in Romantic music we need to be more
free, more expressive, and take more liberty. They
worked together trying to get the maximum effect zooming up (and occasionally
sliding) to a climax while not running out of bow at the top of the phrase. At
one point, Melikian was exasperated and exclaimed, “Is that all you’ve got? I am
an old man, and I can do it. “One or two more attempts and Kevin did it just as
well. Melikian gave us an interesting demonstration of how the speed of the
vibrato controls the intensity of the music, and in one case he instructed Kevin
to begin the vibrato before the bow touched the string.
The audience enjoyed observing how Kevin
was able to understand and adapt to every suggestion.
Garrett McLean
When the next performer, Garrett McLean, came out to play
the Chaconne from Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D Minor, he was greeted with some
rousing applause. Melikian joked, “Don’t applaud for him now. He hasn’t played
yet. Wait until he’s through.” After McLean’s intense performance, Melikian
commented that no one really knows the “correct” way to play this work, for
there isn’t one, since the score only contains the notes with no performance
indications of tempos, or tempo changes, dynamics, articulation, crescendos or
diminuendos, accents, etc. Melikian began working with McLean by insisting that
he feel the eighth-note pulse very accurately and pay special attention to the
longer dotted notes, and the eighths or sixteenths that followed them. The most
interesting part of this session was the time they devoted to the dialogs
between the voices which needed to be delineated using dynamics. Melikian
demonstrated a variety of bowings and an especially effective demonstration of
how dynamics at the soft end can whisper so effectively that the audience stops
breathing. McLean proved to be a compliant student and impressed us with how
effectively he was able to respond to Melikian’s suggestions.
Alex Shiozaki
The last performer of the evening was Alex Shiozaki, 20, a
junior and a music major at Harvard, playing the slow movement from the Brahms
Violin Concerto. Pianist Lori Lack played the orchestra reduction. When Alex had
finished his performance, Melikian quipped, “This is tough. You play it so
beautifully. Am I going to mess it up?” He told the audience that in the faster
outer movements of concertos you can just relax and play the fiddle, but you
really have to work very hard on slow movements, for every note is more
important --- especially long notes. He told Alex that his long notes didn’t
lead anywhere, and it was mostly bowing problems. Together they worked through
many phrases, developing along the way more and more expressive intensity.
It was impressive how Alex with only a few suggestions was able to adapt
quickly and easily. He received a big round of applause at the end of his
session.
