Search - Gluzman, Yoffe, Medtner :: Fireworks: Virtuoso Violin Music

Fireworks and then some -- an unmissable romp

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 01/19/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Fiddlers used to specialize in Paganini-like displays of astonishing virtuosity, and frankly, Heifetz's lightning fingers did more to make him the violinist supreme than his actual interpretations. Vadim Gluzman, a Russian emigre living in Israel, enters the field with an unbeatable combination of high spirits, animal energy, and his own lightning fingers. The opening number alone, a burlesque of Figaro's aria from the Barber of Seville, is so zany and rollicking, with its imitation of a drunken pianist adding to the jollity, that Gluzman's recital could stand on alone.



But as Gluzman moves on, he displays Kreisler-like sentimentality, too, and nimbleness of imagination to match each new challenge. One sense a complete musician enjoying himself on holiday but never losing his deepest instincts. An earlier CD from his that featured a stunning Shostakovich Sonata was suicidally bleak in mood. This sunny antidote should find more friends. I hope it does, because Gluzman exhibits more soul than the last whiz-bang violin recital I heard from Gil Shaham (The Devil's Dance on DG), good as that was. Gluzman can take on a teary chestnut like Schumann's Traumerei as stylishly as Joshua Bell playing to the gallery. The Fiddler on the Roof title theme treads on Itzhak Perlman's territory with the same schmaltzy soulfulness as the original. The second movement of Bloch's Baal Shem Tov carries the same Jewish soulfulness to a higher level.



I'm not a big fan of violin bonbons, but this is a tasty sampling of what Gluzman can do in lighter mood.



Here's the program:

Bloch, E:

Nigun (Baal Shem No. 2)



Castelnuovo-Tedesco:

Figaro Variations from Rossini's `The Barber of Seville'



Francescatti:

Polka, Op. 22



Gardner, Stephen:

Prelude



Halffter, E:

Habanera



Kreisler:

La Gitana



Medtner:

Fairy Tale



Ravel:

Tzigane



Ries:

La Capricciosa



Rota:

Improvviso in re minore



Schumann:

Traümerei (from Kinderszenen, Op. 15)



Wieniawski:

Fantaisie brillante on themes from Gounod's Faust, Op. 20



"