Violinist Wolfgang David’s Rockford debut By Georgia Pampel
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.