pianomania: FRENCH FLAIR & FIREWORKS / Kevin Zhu & Akira Eguchi / Review

FRENCH FLAIR & FIREWORKS

KEVIN ZHU, Violin with

AKIRA EGUCHI, Piano

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (12 January 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 16 January 2024 with the title "Violinist Kevin Zhu shows off purity of tone and perfect intonation".

Following his stupendous performance of Paganini’s 24 Caprices in a single concert last February, American Chinese violinist Kevin Zhu returned with another enthralling recital presented by Altenburg Arts. Continuing on the thread of unaccompanied violin repertoire, it began with a rare performance of Bela Bartok’s Sonata for solo violin.

Crafted in four movements, the 1944 work sounded uncompromisingly modern but was founded upon the familiar form of J.S.Bach’s unaccompanied Sonatas. The opening Tempo di Ciaccona showcased Zhu’s incisive playing, purity of tone and perfect intonation, being completely immersed in its rarefied idiom.

Displaying an astonishing adroitness, the ensuing Fuga revelled in razor sharp reflexes and no little humour. The stark, haunting beauty of the third movement’s Melodia, played on muted strings, provided the work’s most ethereal and otherworldly moments. This soon gave way to the folk-inflected finale’s fierce prestidigitation, literally sweeping the board for an imperious close.

What followed was the famous Bach Chaconne in D minor from Partita No.2, almost a mirror to the opening Bartok movement. Zhu opted for a sleek and slim-lined reading, lithe-sounding in textures and shorn of the wide vibratos favoured by more Romantically-inclined violinists. For listeners today, it is a matter of preference, but there was no denying his commitment or virtuosity.

The recital’s second half was devoted to French repertoire, with Zhu partnered by veteran Japanese collaborative pianist Akira Eguchi. One will scarcely encounter a more pristine Massenet Meditation from Thais than this, with every hair in place yet sounding totally sumptuous. It continued uninterrupted into Debussy’s Violin Sonata in G minor, a late masterpiece from 1917 eschewing his trademark impressionism. It was just pure music, the first movement’s lyricism contrasted with Gallic wit and whimsy in the central movement, before the duo finished on an ecstatic high.

Closer to impressionist visions was Olivier Messiaen’s Louange a l’immortalite de Jesus (Praise to the Immortality of Jesus) from Quartet for the End of Time, composed in 1940 while a German captive in a prisoner-of-war camp. Its celestially high melodic line accompanied by throbbing syncopated piano chords made for the evening’s most poignant pages.

The recital closed with Hollywood film composer Franz Waxman’s Carmen Fantasy, a potpourri of popular melodies from Bizet’s evergreen opera. Compact in scope, darker in mood and more fiendish than the popular Sarasate work of the same title, it received a grandstanding performance that had the audience baying for more.

The sole encore was Fritz Kreisler’s arrangement of Cecile Chaminade’s Serenade Espagnole, a miniature of salon-like charm, after which Zhu turned off his tablet and emerged to more applause sans violin. There is another opportunity to witness Kevin Zhu’s artistry, in Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto with the Orchestra of the Music Makers at Esplanade Concert Hall on Sunday afternoon. Tickets are available at www.sistic.com.