Vilde Frang & Michail Lifits at Koerner Hall, Wednesday, March 2.
[Originally published in the Toronto Star]
There has been a lot of fuss about Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang. Equipped with a 1709 “Engleman” Stradivari and a series of CD’s with Warner Classics boasting lustrous reviews, the 29-year old is an artist on the cusp of stardom.
She was initially scheduled to make a splashy Toronto debut with the Toronto Symphony last year, but the show fettered out like a deflated birthday balloon when she had to cancel at the last-minute. The winning hand fell in front of Koerner Hall, who managed to scoop her up for an intimate performance that, for those of us lucky enough to hear about it, resulted in a red-letter introduction to the emerging violin prodigy.
Surprisingly, the show was sparsely attended. I suspected the low numbers were due to the fact that people in Toronto just haven’t heard of her yet.
Born in 1986, Frang started the violin at the age of four. Her several recordings include a powerful rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto that caught a lot of people by surprise. Last night’s recital provided an ice-breaker of sorts with an “there’s nothing I can’t play” set of works ranging from Schubert, Fauré and Lutosławski, with a Manuel Ponce encore.
Opening with Schubert’s Fantasy in C, Frang’s slightly thin and gracefully low-tensioned opening notes lingered about the piano like a shy songbird. The piano lid was fully opened, and with the delicate acoustics of Koerner Hall, Frang’s soft phrases were sometimes gobbled up by the stout-hearted playing of pianist Michail Lifits. In particular, the pizzicato sections proved a difficult balance to master, but these are all small points to quibble during an otherwise compelling performance.
The two made heavier work with Lutosławski’s Partita for Violin and Piano. Composed in 1984, it’s an unusually passionate piece for the late Polish composer, and rarely heard outside of Anne-Sophie Mutter. Frang’s violin was emotional and thrust the weaving contours forward between the opening colloquy Allegro to the Hollywood noir-like Presto.
Frang plays with a delicate sense of finesse but also has the personality to hold a more forceful conversation when needed. Her vibrato is wide and wild at times, yet also restrained and less excessive. This was heard in Fauré’s Violin Sonata No. 1, and shows one of the marks of a true virtuoso: the ability to play the highest notes in the loudest possible way – with a whisper.
Audiences will no doubt get the chance to hear Frang in a larger setting soon enough, but for those lucky enough to attend last night, she remains our little secret.
#LUDWIGVAN
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