Violin Sonata in A, Op 100 - Brahms
Sonata in F minor, Op 80 - Prokofiev
Tzigane - Ravel
Caprice Basque - Sarasate
Vocalise - Rachmaninov
Carmen Fantasy - Waxman
Now in his mid-20s, Siberian-born Maxim Vengerov is already acknowledged as one of the century's great stars of the violin, and that's how he sounded at his Dublin debut at the NCH last night.
It was an old-time star's sort of programme, all musical protein in the first half, all sweetness and showing off in the second.
The reach of Vengerov's musicianship was most thoroughly revealed in the soft-spoken reading of Brahms's A major Sonata, exceptional for the ease of its seamless cantabile, the finely-balanced arches of its phrasing, and its strongly-retained sense of larger spans and patterns. And, of course, the moment-by-moment beauty was of no mean order, too.
The showmanship began in Prokofiev's F minor Sonata, small-scale point-making and unwarranted tempo adjustments spoiling the larger picture in spite of the wizardry of the fiddling. Igor Uryash at the piano, an equal partner in the Brahms, seemed here a sort of musical lapdog, accommodating to the violinist's caprices.
Caprice was the name of the game in the second half, Ravel's Tzigane as strong on attitude as technical resource, Rachmaninov's Vocalise a little hurried, the Sarasate and Waxman (as well as the generous encores) as devilishly exciting as you could wish.
