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Violinist Wolfgang David 1
Reviews
His Mozart was lyrical, smooth,
and stylistically perfect
 Wiener Zeitung, Austria
Top The Washington Post
 By Cecilia Porter
 
Violinist David: 20th-Century Delights
 
Washington D.C., U.S.A. - Young violinist Wolfgang David, accompanied by pianist Daniel Grimwood, scaled the heights of musicmaking Wednesday at the Austrian Embassy in a performance spanning the 20th century.
 
The Viennese composer Ernst Krenek spent a lifetime testing out every musical style in vogue at various times. Though highly individual, his music is an ironic reinvention of everything from Viennese harmonic rapture and neoclassicism to peppery jazz and the rigor of serialism. His Sonata (1944) brims over with this diversity, yet David's incisive bow arm and vigor tempered by reflection created a unified statement of pathos.
 
David captured the drollery of an eccentric Erik Satie bonbon and coasted over the luminous textures and glossy surfaces of Maurice Ravel's Sonata of 1923 and Darius Milhaud's "Le Boeuf sur le Toit". Yet his lustrous approach to both clarified their psychic differences, evoking Ravel's wistful glow and defining his seamless structures, while scampering through Milhaud's risible twists on Latin rhythmic gusto. An Ernest Bloch piece was spellbinding in its plaintiveness. Grimwood was an intense, skillful partner throughout.
Wolfgang David 3
Top Pretoria News
 By Riek Van Rensburg
 
Pretoria, South Africa – Wolfgang David played Korngold’s Violin Concerto.  He had the full measure of this glorious work.  He succeeded in being assured in technique and commanding in expression, without ever being ´showy´.  The sound was exceptionally rich-textured, full-bodied and resonant.  There was no want of weight or detail from the orchestra.
Top Beeld
 By Thys Odendaal
 
David allows Korngold to sing
 
JPO symphony concert
Linder Auditorium
 
Johannesburg, South Africa – The Austrian Wolfgang David ended his visit of the Northern Provinces this week with the enchanting violin concerto by Korngold with the Johannesburg Philharmonic.
 
The exquisite harmonies, longhaunting themes which are at times interrupted by freak matters, and the continuous build up of the power of the music are characteristics of the work.  One feels that as the music progresses one is part of a musical adventure.  Consequently it is important that the music is presented in the correct spirit, from an energetic approach and full of surprises.
 
This was exactly what David achieved.  His violin allows Korngold’s music to sing sometimes in full and sometimes tenderly, but always with irresistible utterance of sound which the soloist had to control.
 
His interpretation was spontaneous and makes associate with Korngold, in spite of the fact that the concerto was completed a decade before his death.  There was drama, colour and romance in the brilliant performance.
Top ARTSMART
 By Michael Green
 
Lyrical Tones
 
Durban, South Africa - The young Austrian violinist Wolfgang David, who had made a great impression at his Friends of Music recital two days earlier, confirmed at this concert that he is a master of his instrument (which is a Guarneri violin made in Cremona in Northern Italy 274 years ago).
 
He played the 1945 Violin Concerto by his fellow Austrian Erich Korngold, and earned an ovation at the end.  Korngold (1897-1957) spent the last 23 years of his life in Hollywood, where he became a successful writer of film music.  This concerto incorporates some themes from his film scores, and the result is a curious amalgam of romantic, “atmospheric” and quasi-modern music.
 
Reactions to this kind of work tend to be highly subjective and can vary greatly. One member of the audience told me he thought the concerto was lovely;  another said it was too “schmalzy” for his taste.
 
I found it attractive, and it was lifted to a quite exalted level by the superb playing of Wolfgang David. He handled the technical difficulties with apparent ease and produced a full, sweet tone, especially in the slow movement, where the violin is given a long stream of eloquent melody with discreet accompaniment from the orchestra.  A memorable performance, but I couldn’t help wishing that we had heard this soloist in one of the great concertos by Beethoven, Mozart, Dvorak, Tchaikowsky, Elgar, Sibelius, et al.
Top Westfaelische Rundschau
 
 Dortmund, Deutschland – David spielte das berühmte Mendelssohn-Violinkonzert auf seiner Guarnerius-Geige modern, mit schlankem Ton und großer Intensität und Innerlichkeit.  Er durchlebt den Part ausdrucksstark und beseelt, präsent und geistvoll, wie es selten zu hören ist.  Und das alles in einem Atemzug mit dem Orchester.
Top Taunuszeitung
 
 Grandioser Geiger der Star des Abends
 
Bad Homburg, Deutschland – Mit vielfachen Bravo-Rufen war der Geiger Wolfgang David gefeierter Star des Abends, der eine grandiose Interpretation des Violinkonzertes von Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy präsentierte.
 
Wolfgang David gelang eine kongeniale Paarung der anspruchsvollen Virtuosität mit weich romantischen Melodiebögen.  Die schwelgende Thematik wurde von seiner Seite aus niemals überzeichnet, es gelang ein ausgewogenes Maß an rührender Sentimentalität und leidenschaftlicher Expressivität.  Im Finale des mitreißenden Werkes schien ihn das überschäumende Opus schier zu übermannen, so beherzt ließ er den Bogen über die Saiten schnellen.
Top Pretoria News
 By Riek Van Rensburg
 
Pretoria – There was no doubting Wolfgang David’s sensitivity, range of colours, beauty of tone and neat phrasing.  Francois du Toit at the piano gave neat-fingered and stylish support.
 
The seldom heard Sonate for Violin and Piano by Copland was presented with a natural flow and, mercifully, not with an over-projected eloquence.
 
The musicians honoured the lush Richard Strauss sonata in its full panoply of mood and sound.
 
Highlight of this recital, had David in solo capacity.  An effortless virtuosity prevailed in J.S.Bach’s Chaconne in D minor, BWV 1004.  Yet there was nothing bland, mechanical or mannered in his interpretation.
 
David relished the music at every turn in Wieniawski’s Fantasia on Gounod’s Faust.  Both musicians responded gleefully to the kick of the rhythms and the sudden swerves of mood.
Top Port Elizabeth Herold
 By Rupert Mayr
 
Port Elizabeth, South Africa – The short-phrased dialogues characterizing large parts of Copland’s “Sonata for Violin and Piano” require flowless interaction between the two performers to guarantee continuity of line and thought.  Such ideal partnership immediately emerged in the unfolding and elaboration of the triadic material of the first movement and culminated in the amazing effects David and DuToit achieved by masterfully balancing the scalar fragments and single notes dominating the second movement.
 
The beautiful and pure sounds shown throughout this interesting work changed into a feast of highly differentiated tone colours that lent Richard Strauss’s “Sonata in E Flat Major, Op. 18” a pronounced orchestral quality.  This was Strauss as played by the Vienna Philharmonics!  Listening to these flamboyant, powerful Straussian themes it was easy to imagine the glorious sound of the full ensemble, while other, more transparent passages resembled the lightness of woodwinds and spiccato playing strings.  On top of it all there were those almost endless and beautifully shaped melodies floating over a gentle background occasionally brightened by celesta and glockenspiel.
 
In spite of huge dynamic climaxes the sound never deteriorated and remained perfectly controlled and pure.  Altogether, a unique example of a perfect partnership by two superb musicians.
 
It was however in Bach’s “Chaconne in D minor BWV 1004” where David’s artistry showed to the fullest.  He not only mastered excessive technical demands with apparent ease but by careful phrasing, dynamic control and varying sonorities gathered individual variations into bigger units that by counteracting shortphrased repetitions exposed a large and more expanded overall frame.
 
Virtuosity of highest order finally ruled Wieniawski’s “Fantasie Brillante on themes from Gounod’s Faust, Op.29” that closed the official programme.  Thanks to a well-deserved standing ovation our visitors added Kreisler’s “Liebesleid” – played in best Viennese style.
Top The Citizen
 By Michael Traub
 
Impressive performance from Austrian violinist
 
Johannesburg, South Africa – New to us, the Austrian violin virtuoso, Wolfgang David, made an impressive debut in Johannesburg in a programme of substantial proportions.
 
He began with Copland’s Second World War Sonata, an austere work written in memory of a friend killed during the war.
 
Throughout, David sustained the necessary degree of intensity of expression aided by a similar degree of focus on the part of the pianist Francois du Toit, who was at the top of his form at all times.
 
The Copland was followed by the expansive Sonata by Strauss in E flat major, all optimism and warmth, though perhaps overlong in places.
 
Once again the dexterous co-operation between the two artists produced another convincing performance and the beautiful tone produced by the violinist from his valuable Guarnerius was matched by the pianist, notably in the extended slow movement, essentially a nocturne.
 
After the interval, David played Bach’s famous Chaconne in D minor, an unaccompanied piece which tests the skill of the player both as to execution and expression.
 
Particularly admirable was the strong rhythmic line, which was undisturbed by any difficulty getting around the notes.
 
The closing work was Wieniawski’s Fantasy on Themes from Gounod’s Faust, a thorough re-composition rather than a mere pot-pourri of well-known tunes.  Here great virtuosity was amply in evidence.
 
The Kreisler encore (Love’s Sorrows) was a fitting end to a splendid recital.
Top Südkurier
 By Franz Josef Lay
 
Bach vom Allerfeinsten
 
Sommerkonzert mit Geiger Wolfgang David
 
Der Violinabend mit dem jungen österreichischen Geiger Wolfgang David, der aufgrund seiner Begabung bereits mit acht Jahren in die Wiener Musikhochschule aufgenommen wurde, ist wohl die Perle der diesjährigen Langenargener Sommerkonzertreihe.  Denn da wurde bei hohem Niveau Bach-Spiel auf einem kostbaren wie klangschönen Instrument geboten.  Nicht weniger anspruchsvoll war das Programm für Interpreten wie für das erstaunlich zahlreiche Publikum, das sich von dem makellosen wie virtuosen Spiel des Violinisten gefangen nehmen ließ.
 
Als erstes Werk interpretierte Wolfgang David die Solopartita in h-Moll (BWV 1002) von J.S.Bach.  Höchste spieltechnische wie musikalische Anforderungen stellt schon die einleitende Allemanda, ein rhythmisch wie auch geigerisch vertrackter Satz, bei dem der Geiger dennoch auf große geschlossene Linie in mäßig fließendem Metrum hin gestaltete.  Im folgenden Double, eine Art Variation, löste sich dieses komplexe Geschehen in ein gleichmäßiges Sechzehntelfließen auf.  Straffer in der Artikulation hielt David die Courante mit ihren lebendig auf- und absteigenden Achtelbewegungen, die sich in den tiefen Lagen wie runder Orgelklang anhörte und den wunderbaren Klang der Geige von 1731 aus Cremona besonders charakterisierte.  Allein dafür hat sich schon der Konzertbesuch gelohnt!
 
Beschleunigung erhielt die Courante im folgenden Double bei tonleitermäßiger Geläufigkeit, die Wolfgang David im Prestotempo virtuos beherrschte, ohne Technik vordergründig werden zu lassen.  Die Sarabande bestach durch die ausgewogene Melodieführung bei sauber intonierten Doppelgriffen für die Harmonisierung der Hauptstimme.  Diese Akkordik wurde durch ein weiteres Double in melodischer Triolenbewegung in sensibler Tongestaltung aufgelöst.  Statt der üblichen Gigue brachte ein „Tempo di Bourea“ (eine Art Borrée) neuen Energieschub, den der Geiger zu sehr kultivierter wie kraftvoller Tongestaltung bei energischem Akkordspiel und strömenden Einzeltönen nutzte.  In die Ohren gehende Terzklänge lenkten im Schlussdouble den Kurs wieder in ruhigere Bahnen.
 
Zwischen den Bach-Werken zündete Wolfgang David ein prächtiges Feuerwerk geigerischer Virtuosität mit drei Capricen von Niccolo Paganini aus Opus 1.  Doch mit den verschiedenen schwierigen Spieltechniken verband Wolfgang David auch noch musikalischen Ausdruck wie in der äußerst komplizierten Springbogen-Caprice Nr. 1, bei der der Geiger trotz hohen Tempos und ständigem Saitenwechsel jedem Ton Substanz gab.  Bei der 22. Caprice klang das Liedhafte aus dem reichen und tonreichen Doppelgriffspiel heraus.  Glanzpunkt des Opus ist die letzte, berühmt gewordene 24. Caprice mit ihrem markanten Thema, das von einer Reihe großer Komponisten aufgegriffen worden ist.  In elf Variationen bis hin zum kapriziösen Pizzicato- Bogenwechsel ließ es der Interpret in vielen Facetten bravourös durchklingen.
 
Nach der Pause zurück zu J.S.Bachs Solosonate in C-Dur (BWV 1005).  Kein strahlendes Präludium zu Beginn, sondern Wolfgang David hielt das Adagio mehr nach innen gekehrt, die strukturelle Dichte auf die lebendige Punktierung konzentrierend.  Eine Riesenfuge mit 354 Takten schloss sich an, eine Herausforderung für den Solisten wie den Zuhörer.  Dennoch gelang es dem konzentriert wirkenden Interpreten, die Spannung mit Umkehrungen und Spiegelung des Themas wie Mehrstimmigkeit und Orgelpunkt durchzuhalten.  Nach diesem gewaltigen Ausbruch brachte das Largo die Entspannung bei empfindsamer Intonation.  Mit dem Allegro assai ist noch ein konzertant-virtuoses Element an den Schluss gesetzt.  Nicht einen Augenblick lang setzte die fast übermütige Musizierlaune des Geigers dabei aus.  Zurecht begeisterter Beifall.  Dafür gab es Zugabe ein Andante aus der a-Moll-Solo-Sonate.
Top ARTSMART
 By Michael Green
 
Friends Of Music: Wolfgang David & Francois du Toit
 
Durban, South Africa - Arriving here more or less unheralded, the young Austrian violinist Wolfgang David showed himself to be an artist of the first rank in this recital by the Friends of Music at the Durban Jewish Centre with the distinguished South African pianist Francois du Toit.
 
Wolfgang David is the best violinist we have heard in Durban for a long time. In a programme ranging from Bach to Aaron Copland he played with power and authority and a magnificently full and accurate tone. He certainly did justice to the 1731 Guarneri violin which he plays, lent to him by the Austrian National Bank. And Francois du Toit contributed greatly at the keyboard. These are not works for violin accompanied by the piano. They were written for violin and piano, with the latter playing almost as important a role as the former.
 
Aaron Copland’s Sonata for Violin and Piano was new to me. Written about 60 years ago, it is still essentially “modern” in idiom but, like most of Copland’s music, it is quite accessible to ears hearing it for the first time. Dedicated to a friend who was killed while on service in the Second World War, it is serious music, with a degree of anguish, but it is not depressingly mournful. The most impressive section, in my view, is the calm, resigned slow movement, with the violin and piano playing almost unharmonised contrapuntal threads of melody. One sensed that the audience was totally absorbed by this music.
 
A change of mood came with Richard Strauss’s Sonata in E flat major, Op. 18, written in 1887-88, a late romantic work in the grand manner. Both players revelled in Strauss’s sweeping melodies, a kind of fingerprint of the composer’s work throughout his long life. Again, the slow movement provided the most beautiful music and the most beautiful playing, with the violinist producing a tone quite thrilling in its depth and broadness.
 
The programme was completed with Bach’s celebrated Chaconne in D minor for solo violin and a showpiece, a Fantasie Brilliante on themes from Gounod’s Faust by the nineteenth century violin virtuoso Henryk Wieniawski.
Top Neue Zeit
 
 Ein souveräner Solist
 
Graz, Österreich – Im Zeichen des Geigers Wolfgang David, Solist in Prokofievs 2. Violinkonzert in g-Moll, stand das Musikfreunde-Abonnementkonzert mit dem Grazer Symphonischen Orchester unter Chefdirigent Milan Horvat im Stephaniensaal. Schon in den ersten Tönen seines Parts in dem komplexen und technisch anspruchsvollen Werk zeigte David die selbstverständliche Entschlossenheit und Konzentration, aber auch die tonliche Strahlkraft des souveränen Solisten. Diese Fähigkeit gestatteten es ihm etwa, den einleitenden „fernen“ Gesang im 2. Satz mit nobler Zurückhaltung zu spielen, um dann immer wieder solistisch triumphal (und technisch untadelig) auch über geballte Orchestermassen zu dominieren. Eine außerordentliche Leistung.
Top Beeld
 By Thys Odendaal
 
A Delightful Experience
 
David and Du Toit. Wits Great Hall
 
Johannesburg, South Africa - Wolfgang David is a violinist from Vienna; an artist adorned in that school which in some ways differs somewhat from his contemporaries like the Russians Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin or the American Joshua Bell.
 
From the start with Mozart's K301 Sonata one is placed in the special era of his compatriot Wolfgang Schneiderhan, technically completely in control but with a style of enchantment.
 
With his 1731-Guarneri and flowing stroke movements his Mozart sparkled so idiomatically delightful that one recalled the intimacy of a Viennese musical evening of the 18th century.
 
Franck's violin Sonata was written for his violinist friend Ysaye as a wedding present, but it is also a part of the cello repertoire (transposed an octave lower). Owing to the fact that it is often heard on the lower instrument, one can attribute a heavier timbre to this passionate work. Consequently it was a delightful experience to hear it on the violin, above all in the hand of a soloist who is not concerned with extravagance. His emotionality is lyrical. The pianist Francois du Toit read David perfectly and mastered the piano score with the necessary control. Feathery passages in sweeping phrases bounded the musicians as a unity which gave momentum to the outstanding performance.
 
For a violinist of this nature the second half was surprising. After Bloch's introvert Nigun came a lot of 'encores' from Saint-Saens's Havanaise to Kreisler's Rhapsodic Fantasietta and Wieniawski's Polonaise Brillante.
 
However, even in this display cabinet David did not succumb to purely technical infringements. Meaningful interpretations created a sort of salon atmosphere, also as a result of du Toit's rich insight and judgement came to the fore.
Top The Star
 By David Hoenigsberg
 
Wolfgang Thrills With Concerto
Gigantic
 
Johannesburg, South Africa -- Austrian Wolfgang David performed the gigantic Brahms Concerto, a work of great depth and dignified beauty, in a manner that belled its tremendous difficulties and complex emotional structure.
 
As it is the interpreters' role to serve the music and the composer by putting their personality aside and becoming one with what they do, then David triumphed.
 
For a performer this young to bring this work to such a glowing and full interpretation despite his youth, is indeed remarkable. David breathed life into what in the wrong hands can become laboured and uninteresting.
 
His understanding of the style and emotional subtlies can only be described as having been imbibed.
 
Essence
 
Here is someone who has breathed the very essence of Viennese Romanticism to bring to the public - without frills and unnecessary exaggeration - the wit, elan, passion and grace that can be found in Brahms.
Top The Rock River Times
 By Georgia Pampel
 
Violinist Wolfgang David's Rockford debut
 
Rockford, Illinois, U.S.A. - Sunday, Jan. 13, had a festive gloss to it, as the audience poured in to fill the Rockford Theatre for what felt like the sure resumption of Rockford's classical music season after the winter break. True, the holidays always bring us an ever-welcome blend of Messiahs and madrigals-but after all that, many of us were ready again for a straight concert, without external references.
 
So, Sunday afternoon, as a feature of Mendelssohn Club's Visiting Artists series, an eager crowd reserved this time to hear a young (barely 30) Austrian virtuoso, Wolfgang David, who lived up to our every expectation in a program of standard classics. Conservative in his choices, he did not stray far into those areas that give more challenge to the listening ear, but in his hands, the familiar works were like comfort food to this audience.
 
And his able hands made the most of his treasured Guarneri violin (dated 1731) that has been his concert instrument for the last four years, as a generous loan from the Austrian National Bank.
 
From the very first notes, the violin lived up to its maker's historical renown, as David's skilled artistry drew out smooth silken tones from the magic strings. There was a delicacy to his touch throughout, without giving in to the harshness that some violinists use to accent the stronger musical lines.
 
Mozart was 22 when he penned the Sonata (K.301) that opened the program, and the work marked his early exploration of the interweaving of piano and violin lines (in contrast to earlier works where the piano is more limited to the role of supporting accompanist). The Sonata had a light flavor throughout, with the character of Tyrolean folk dance music.
 
This set up an interesting introduction for the musically more sophisticated and complex César Franck Sonata which followed. Written just past one century later than the Mozart, the Sonata ranks as Franck's most popular work. Rather than the more conventional contrasting movements of earlier composers, Franck unifies this work by exploring a variety of uses of closely related motifs throughout.
 
The second half of the program featured five shorter works reaching into the first quarter of the 20th century, and amply showing his technical expertise, but never compromising his ever-evident love of the musical expressiveness and this particular violin's potential for an eternally lovely warm sound.
 
From David's arrival on stage with pianist Alan Brown, their joint bows made it clear that they are a two-man team, collaborating in the true sense of the word. Often, the two instruments were so closely blended that they sounded as a single voice, and their combined bows acknowledging applause made it clear that David shared the musical acclaim with his partner, who richly deserved the recognition.
 
We look forward to following the developing career of this young violinist as he becomes more daring and adventuresome in his programming, without ever losing the musical love that ruled the afternoon, all the way to the final encore, Elgar's Salut d'Amour, an appropriate close.
Top The Mercury
 By Barbara Trofimczyk
 
Quality Classical Music
 
Durban, South Africa - Recently, patrons of the Friends of Music Society had the great pleasure of hearing the brilliant young Viennese violinist, Wolfgang David, and South African pianist Francois du Toit in one of the finest duo recitals we've had in Durban.
 
It was a wonderfully balanced and varied programme of sonatas and shorter items played with excellent style, subtle artistry and lovely nuances.
 
We had exciting musical vitality and a logic that made everything simply beautiful.
Top The Pretoria News
 By Paul Boekkooi
 
Virtuoso Performance
 
Pretoria, South Africa - Wolfgang David (violin); Francois du Toit (piano), Unisa Conference Hall, August 24, 2002
 
Gauteng audiences were lucky that soon after the great disappointment of Maxim Vengerov's cancellation, they could hear an inspiring violin recital by Austrian Wolfgang David.
 
He played with Francois du Toit, bringing us a wide range of gems for the violin that are not often heard. Opening with Mozart's Sonata in G, K 301 and aided throughout by a superb Guarnerius violin, it was soon clear that David produced a very sweet and appealing tone quality and much of what he does is very individual indeed.
 
The marvellous opening of K301 was played beautifully, while the repeat on the piano had great impact. The playing was impassioned, but the duo also realised how effective restraint can be in certain passages. This last element was especially enlightening in the G minor section of the second movement where the violinist's graceful notes were both stylish and musical.
 
In Franck's Violin Sonata in A power of expression was combined with unerring poise. The lavish, silvery tone of the violin only became astringent in a couple of passages when fervour and energy levels aimed too high instead of reflecting emotional weight and intensity.
 
The performance was at ist best when David could achieve a bountiful fluidity, like in the Recitativo-Fantasia and the Finale where at the point where the theme returns in canon, both players were at their best, echoing one another with characteristic warmth and sensitivity.
 
The second half of their recital with music by Bloch, Gluck, Saint-Saens, Kreisler. And Wieniawski, was even more enticing. The violinist's strong interpretative qualities were centre stage in Bloch's Nigun: heartfelt and impassioned, while Gluck's wellknown Melody was spun with ist essential ethereal quality in tact.
 
Technical brio and ravishing accuracy were hallmarks of the Havanaise by Saint-Saens, but most stunning of all was David's playing of the Viennese Rhapsodic Fantasietta, an extended work by Fritz Kreisler. Here it obviously is only a native of Vienna, like the violinist himself, who can feel the interpretative inflections one needs to creep under the work's skin. He also makes it sound disarmingly easy. This is one Kreisler work that is all but a concert encore!
 
Finally the Polonaise Brillante, Opus 21 by Wieniawski, gave us dashing playing, but also had lyrically persuasive qualities. No wonder two encores just had to follow to keep the memory of a very distinguished concert alive as long as possible.
Top Die Burger
 By Pieter Koou
 
Magical Sounds From Pale Program
 
Cape Town, South Africa - Violin Recital: Wolfgang David (violin) and Francois du Toit (piano) for Cape Town Concert Series. In Baxter Concert Hall.
 
The Austrian violinist Wolfgang David enchants the most wonderful sounds from his 270 year old Guarneri del Gesu violin on which he plays. This very valuable instrument belongs to the Austrian National Bank who has loaned it to David. It sounds like a bank with insight in investments and culture.
 
Before the start of the concert I noticed that the concert hall was not as full as usual. Obviously many concert goers did not turn up for the concert. I came to the conclusion that the uninteresting second half of the program was the reason for this. The beautiful Nigun of Ernest Bloch, the Melody of Christoph Willibald Gluck (Kreiler's transcription of the ballet Orpheus and Euridice), the Havanaise of Saint-Saens which sounds pale without the luscious sounds of the orchestra, Kreisler's Viennese Rhapsodic Fantasietta which starts like restaurant music but ends wilder and Wieniawski's Polonaise Brillante are not drawing cards for a reasonable sophisticated audience.
 
David and Francois du Toit played like angels but the music was too unimportant to have a striking power or to reach one's soul.
 
The first half of the program was a completely different story. After a charming rendering of the equally charming violin sonata in G major K301 by Mozart, Cesar Franck's imposing violin sonata in A major was the main course.
 
In this the two artists were moving and stirred one deeply.
 
The wonderful sounds - great, warm and beautifully pure - which the violinist projected were supported by Francois du Toit's equally great piano sounds and virtuosity. In the exciting sections of the sonata the sounds gushed over one like waves. I have heard this sonata with more rhythmic subtlety and spontaneity, but never with more continuing intensity or stronger rhythmic flow.
Top The Times of India
 By Jaysti Ghosh
 
Extremely Competent
 
New Delhi, India -- The young Austrian violinist began his solo recital with what is probably the single greatest test of a violinist's musical prowess: the Partita in D minor for solo violin by Johann Sebastian Bach. This large, demanding which requires not only the purest understanding of contrapuntal playing but also profundity of purpose and elegance of expression. David justified his choice of this ambitious piece with his performance, which was extremely competent even if not as mature as more famous interpretations.
 
The opening Allemande showed proficient tone production and the discipline essential to Bach. The lovely slow Sarabande included some luscious chord playing. The Gigue was executed rapidly, possibly too fast since it tended to affect the bowing adversely. The final Chaconne - known as the finest violin piece ever written - was handled well, with a fine tone, good phrasing and intense expression.
 
Post interval, David played Sergei Prokofiev´s Solo Sonata Opus 115, arguably the best performance of the evening. This is a lovely, yet rarely performed piece, showing the composer in relaxed and expansive mood, light-hearted but lyrical. The Moderato was buoyant and fluid, and the delectable Andante was played graciously and stylishly. The lively last movement further indicated the soloist's affinity for this music.
 
A short, pleasant piece by J. Sengstschmid paved the way for a rendition of the "Ballade" for solo violin by Eugene Ysaye. This is a virtuoso piece, which is also musically interesting, and the performer brought out its more attractive aspects. For the encore, David went back to Bach: the Adagio from the C major Violin Sonata, in which the chords were lovingly spun out like filigree.
Top The Statesman
 
 Mature Recital By Young Austrian
 
New Delhi, India -- Twenty-one-year-old Wolfgang David´s solo violin recital at the IIC Auditorium, presented by the Austrian Embassy, the Delhi Music Society and the Centre was a formidable challenge for it featured Bach´s D Minor Partita. The solo sonata by Sergei Prokofiev and a short solo by Johann Sengstschmid were the other highlights of the evening.
 
A solo violin recital can only be attempted by artistes of the highest calibre and before the concert began one wondered if the young Austrian was being too ambitious. However, all fears were laid aside when young David touched his bow to his violin and started with an effortless performance of the Allemande from the D Minor Partita. The violinst´s tone has a bright, shining quality which is ideal for Bach´s interweaving lines. The Courante and Gigue among faster dances had the clean, clear texture and were played without a trace of roughness in the bowing.
 
The stately Sarabande showed David´s fine sense of involvement with the more profound depths of Bach´s music. The collosal Chaconne was built up with an awareness of its structure. Perhaps a more vivid contrast between the major and minor variations would make a greater dramatic impact. Even so it was a marvellous performance for a 21-year-old and one can see the potential of a great player in David.
 
Prokofiev´s Solo Sonata Op 100 (heard for the first time) in the second half was brilliant and youthful in spirit - though it is a late opus - and was tossed of by the young violinist with real brio. The short piece by the artiste´s father was a charming intermezzo-like movement which had a genuine lyrical flavour. The solo sonata by Ysaye subtitled "Ballade" was a nineteenth century tour de force by one of the greatest violinists of that period, Eugene Ysaye, who gave the first performance of Cesar Franck's Sonata in for violin. The Ballade is full of warm romantic overtones and bristles with violinistic tricks of technique of the schools of Vieuxtemps and Sarasate who in turn were the bearers of the great Paganini tradition.
 
Wolfgang David's recital showed his complete grasp of the solo violin repertoire encompassing the Baroque, Romantic and contemporary 20th century schools.
Top Kleine Zeitung
 By Wolfgang Stern
 
Graz, Österreich – Wolfgang Davids Weg nach oben scheint vorgezeichnet.
Top Beeld
 By Stefans Grove
 
David Is An Ideal Violinist
 
Pretoria, South Africa - For me Wolfgang David is an ideal violinist. He is not only a musician with strong poesy and aristocracy, but also a master of technique and a very intelligent musician who analyzes the meaning of every single note.
Top The Pretoria News
 By Riek van Rensburg
 
Pretoria, South Africa -- There was feline grace and silvery elegance in Wolfgang David´s rendering of the Brahms Concerto. Yet, he clearly relished the work´s heroic scale, its arching lyrical vistas, its mettlesome virtuosity. Here was the authority of a seemingly seasoned professional (he is only 20 years old) combined with a verve and spontaneity of youth.
 
His intonation was secure, his tone bright and he imbued the entire work with a sense of grace while implying deeper feelings below the surface. The Adagio found him perceptive and serene, spinning a long, perfectly poised melodic line, ending an evening of exquisite music-making with mercurial touch in the brilliant finale.
Top Wiener Zeitung
 By Hans Herbert Müller
 
Wien, Österreich – Sein Mozart (Sonate B-Dur, KV 454) war gesanglich, geschmeidig und stilistisch perfekt. Und der Kopfsprung in einen ganz anderen Stil (Sonate von Ravel) glückte beeindruckend. Der Blues legte davon beredtes Zeugnis ab, und der mit lockerer Virtuosität hingelegte Schlußsatz riß dem Publikum den Applaus nur so aus den Händen.
Top Die Presse
 By Wilhelm Sinkovicz
 
Wien, Österreich – Wolfgang David blühte bei Ravels Violinsonate auf. In deren Blues-Satz kam die rhythmische Feinnervigkeit des jungen Geigers wunderbar zur Geltung. Das Finale bewältigte er bravourös, ohne über den allzuvielen, rasant zu absolvierenden Noten die Fassung – und damit Tempo oder Modulationsfähigkeit – zu verlieren. Eine reife, auch klanglich besonders beeindruckende Leistung.
Top Badische Zeitung
 
 Freiburg, Deutschland – Technisch versiert und mit souveräner Beherrschung des Instruments zeigte der junge Geiger eine ganze Palette romantischen Tons auf.