Here's something highly improbable: Christian Tetzlaff and Leif Ove
Andsnes in a wonderful performance of the Brahms Violin Sonata No. 3...
sounding anticlimactic.  Unlikely, yes, but that's what happened tonight
in Herbst Theater.

The reason: the program opened with Janacek's Sonata for Violin and
Piano, and after that, it was difficult to concentrate on anything else
- it was an overwhelming experience of a rarely-played fabulous piece
of music, performed with passion and precision.

It is a turbulent-romantic-surprising-"modern"-gripping work, the kind
you want to hear again immediately after the performance.  Yes, even
more than the Brahms...:)

This was only the second time I heard the Janacek live.  The first was
15 years ago, same venue, same performers.  It was in 1994 that Ruth
Felt first brought in Tetzlaff and Andsnes, and the Janacek Sonata was
on the program.  With all those years since then, I am not sure how the
performance went then (except that we all raved about the discovery of
these two young musical supermen), but I am certain that it could not
have had the burning intensity, the effortless elegance of tonight's
performance.  (I looked for a recording, and found a discontinued [!]
one on Amazon - is there another?)

Also on the program: a flawless Mozart Sonata in F Major, K. 377,
and robust Schubert Rondo Brillant in B minor, D. 895; two Sibelius
miniatures: Dance Champe[with a hat]tre, Op. 106, No. 5 and 2.

For a proper review, check Michelle Dulak's tomorrow on SFCV.org.

Janos Gereben
www.sfcv.org
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