RED LETTER DAY part 4 - Beethoven's 9th Violin Sonata 'Kreutzer'
 
ACTUALLY Saturday 28th February - 7.30pm
  1. "Some people say that because I've been performing since I was barely five years old, I didn't have a childhood. Believe me, when you've seen abducted child soldiers in Uganda you understand what it means not to have had a childhood. When I played for them, it broke down walls of ice. I understood what miracles you can bring to children through music."
Maxim Vengerov in The Sunday Times Magazine February 15, 2004
Maxim Vengerov is the father Sasha would like to have - you can't help liking him, he plays like an angelic devil yet is small, vulnerable yet friendly.
This concert was made complete by two unforgettable things - the first movement of Beethoven's 'Kreutzer' Sonata, played by Maxim on the 'Kreutzer' Stradivarius, and the piano accompaniment by a Turkish pianist, Fazil Say. Fazil made the most extraordinary, gymnastic movements on the piano, turning to Maxim regularly to find common ground and express physically their sensational timing. I don't think I can remember a concert I enjoyed more.
(Except for La Boheme, earlier, on this scarlet, vermilion, carmine, crimson, pink, lake, maroon, carnation - of red letter days.)
Ricardo’s Blagado
Friday, 5 March 2004