Just where to begin?
The Polish composer Andrzej Panufnik (an acquired taste, but with a
nevertheless committed following) began his Violin Concerto – dedicated
to Yehudi Menuhin – by writing the virtuosic last movement first.
Meanwhile, the German Richard Strauss also back-filled the earlier
variations in his fantasy tone poem based on Cervantes' adventures of
deluded Spanish knight Don Quixote and his servant Sancho Panza.
Be that as it may, both works, featured side by side as here, emerged
in the eventual and correct forward-thinking manner that gives them
full purpose.
Sad, maybe, that we were denied the renowned Siberian violinist Vadim
Repin's Liverpool debut because of a shoulder injury, but the last-
minute substitution of American-born former BBC Young Generation artist
Tai Murray, missed none of the subtlety required for the concerto's
earlier gently undulating, mainly high-pitched 'singing' motifs,
purposefully backed only by other strings, so as not to be overwhelming
and detract from the generally dreamy timbre.
Altogether a sensitive tread through some very fine tracery of a kind
perhaps too rarely heard in the usual concerto format which favours
panache.
One presumes Panufnik's widow, a guest for the occasion, duly approved.
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