Leonidas Kavakos, Enrico Pace, Wigmore Hall | reviews, news & interviews
Leonidas Kavakos, Enrico Pace, Wigmore Hall
Leonidas Kavakos, Enrico Pace, Wigmore Hall
A revelatory duo partnership excels in Prokofiev and Schubert
Monday, 17 January 2011
Leonidas Kavakos: A great soloist, but an even greater duo partner working with a first-rate pianistYannis Bournias
No doubt about it, Leonidas Kavakos is one of the world's top 10 live-wire violinists. But here in London he seems to have sold himself a bit short recently with a less than great concerto repertoire (Korngold, Szymanowski's Second). Korngold furnished a springy intermezzo in last night's blockbuster recital, Szymanowski a ravishing second encore, but I went to hear two giddying masterpieces, Prokofiev's First Violin Sonata and Schubert's Fantasy in C. If unknown quantity Enrico Pace could manage to play Richter to Kavakos's David Oistrakh, it might turn out to be awe-inspiring. He did, so it was.
No doubt about it, Leonidas Kavakos is one of the world's top 10 live-wire violinists. But here in London he seems to have sold himself a bit short recently with a less than great concerto repertoire (Korngold, Szymanowski's Second). Korngold furnished a springy intermezzo in last night's blockbuster recital, Szymanowski a ravishing second encore, but I went to hear two giddying masterpieces, Prokofiev's First Violin Sonata and Schubert's Fantasy in C. If unknown quantity Enrico Pace could manage to play Richter to Kavakos's David Oistrakh, it might turn out to be awe-inspiring. He did, so it was.
Kavakos trod the air provided by his pianist, carolling and soaring in some of the gayest and most elated music ever composed
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