Concert review: Francesca Dego (violin) Alessandro Taverna (piano)

Opening a recital with late Schoenberg was a bold move from top Italian-American violinist Francesca Dego, but she more than pulled it off. After the brusque, percussive up-bow opening, she moved between the tiny, delicate motifs, trills, harmonics, glissandos and pizzicato notes with an expertly controlled right hand and a convincing sense of the overarching phrasing. Dego cherished the occasional warm lyrical moments, and her line and that of Alessandro Taverna were perfectly dovetailed.

The Violin Sonata by the 23-year-old Richard Strauss drew a very different style of playing, and a much sweeter sound from Dego’s 1697 Rugeri violin. Lithe and elegant in lilac and black, she cut a heroic figure for this demanding Romantic work. Her silky-smooth bowing and flawless top notes sang out divinely, though a heavier right arm might have helped her sound carry over the denser keyboard passages. The Andante cantabile was tenderly played, leaving the audience rapt and hushed.

In Beethoven’s ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata Dego’s long hair and fringe falling forwards and obscuring her face, slightly annoying in the first half, became more of a distraction when it moved with each sforzando she played. The theme and variations were exquisite, with apt touches of rubato, good sudden fortes and delicate filigree trills as she climbed higher and higher up the fingerboard, reaching for the heights of Beethoven’s sublimity.

Dego seemed particularly relaxed in the second of her two encores, a student piece by Schoenberg with hints of Austrian folk, given with infectious charm and character.

JANET BANKS