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Violinist Gil Shaham delighted the sold-out crowd at Jordan Hall. (Boyd Hagen) |
Music Review
Dashing across the violin literature, sunny all the way
One of the pleasures of the
Shaham typically takes a middle-of-the-road approach to interpretation, seeking neither to vanish behind the work at hand nor stamp his own bold monogram on its front pocket. He projects a sunny, even-keeled temperament, seemingly independent of his repertoire. That quality, joined with his unerringly warm tone and silken technique, made Sunday's recital an easily enjoyable affair, albeit not the sort that lingers in the mind particularly long after the last note has been played.
The chosen program felt like two halves from different recitals roughly stapled together, with the first part devoted to William Walton and solo Bach, and the second part given over to dazzling, display-oriented Spanish repertoire by Joaquín Rodrigo and Pablo de Sarasate. One of Shaham's many technical assets is his melting vibrato, and you could see his left hand in motion long before the bow even arrived on the string for the opening bars of Walton's Violin Sonata. It is a piece that impresses with its impeccable craftsmanship more than its expressive depths, and not even this well-considered reading made one feel that the music's peripheral place in the violin literature was a great injustice. Pianist Akira Eguchi was a capable and responsive partner.
From the margins of the repertoire Shaham vaulted to its epicenter, the solo violin works of Bach, and specifically, the Sonata No. 2 in A Minor. The opening movement is austere, sad, noble music, and Shaham took it at a relatively fast pace, missing some opportunities for inflection but at the same time building forward momentum, as if being pulled inexorably toward the giant fugue waiting just out of sight. There, in the second movement, a single violin traces a vast, ornate cathedral in sound. One had to marvel at Shaham's immaculate lines and sheer tonal brilliance. The Andante had a gentle lilting gait and a lovely singing quality, with the repeated lower notes sounding with particular warmth.
After intermission, as if flipping a switch, Shaham turned the recital into an unabashed celebration of virtuosity, with Rodrigo's explosively energetic "Sonata Pimpante" along with three works by Sarasate, a titan of the 19th-century violin. Eguchi stuck with him gamely while Shaham dispatched all of it with considerable flair and seemingly effortless technique. He does not have the white-hot temperament to spark riots in the crowd with works in the so-called gypsy style like the concluding "Zigeunerweisen," but Shaham still had Sunday's audience on its feet cheering. He replied with two encores: Joachim's arrangement of Brahms's Hungarian Dance No. 4, and a serene transcription of Fauré's "Clair de Lune."
Jeremy Eichler can be reached at jeichler@globe.com.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
