In a program observing three violin greats of the past, German violinist Christian Tetzlaff proved himself one of the greats of the present.
Before a rapt, sold-out audience at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts, the earnest virtuoso displayed seemingly limitless technical discipline, dexterity and endurance.
In Bela Bartok’s Sonata for Unaccompanied Violin — premiered by Yehudi Menuhin in 1944 — Tetzlaff embraced its intensely angular rhythms and pulsating patterns with compelling aggression, then offered reprieve in a muted but still rigorously concentrated interpretation of the more lyrical third movement, “Melodia.”
After intermission, Tetzlaff probed J.S. Bach’s four-movement Sonata No. 3 in C major with a deeply deliberate attentiveness to the purity and transparency that defines the Baroque-era master. Tetzlaff’s spotless reading of the “Largo” was especially stirring, as was the breathtaking velocity of the work’s conclusion.
But it was the bookends of the program — a solo violin sonata by Belgian violinist-composer Eugène Ysaÿe and four of Niccolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices, Op. 1 — that most impressively bore out Tetzlaff’s astounding technical facility. While he performed Bach and Bartok from memory, it’s no wonder that the devilishly difficult outer works of the program were read from musical scores.
In Ysaÿe’s complicated, multilayered sonata, Tetzlaff easily established his unyielding command of potent, densely layered musical material, even as his exacting and exhilarating approach to Paganini made for a breakneck roller coaster ride through impossibly intricate runs across the fingerboard.
Yet Tetzlaff’s extraordinary technical knack and debatably less developed sense of musicality create an artistic disconnect. While his dazzling skill and stamina undoubtedly render both musical flash and finesse, there is a lack of subtlety and feeling in his delivery. For example, the arguably philosophical, almost mystical sensibility of Bach’s “Largo” was left largely unexplored in the shadow of Tetzlaff’s overwhelming emphasis on technical precision.
So, too, the emotional content of the remaining works on the program was comprised. While Tetzlaff is undeniably gifted, his brilliant passagework and dazzling bowing proficiency have yet to encompass an emotional awareness by which to achieve a truly satisfying musical experience.
The 54th Friends of Chamber Music season continues March 5 with a performance by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
