Concert review: Tobias Feldmann (violin) Boris Kusnezow (piano)

Tobias Feldmann opened this Sunday morning concert with Mozart’s G minor Sonata K301, playing as if in duple time, his phrasing elegant and colourful. In the second-movement Allegro he made constant dynamic changes, switching in an instant from punchy staccato phrases to something light and airy.

He produced a muscular, meaty start to Poulenc’s Sonata before a long-breathed account of the second theme, and moved on again to ferocity, playing with a big sound and rhythmic certainty, technically impressive through the composer’s musical kaleidoscope. The central Intermezzo was floating and tender before emerging into more emotional territory, always intimate and urbane. Energy gave way to tragedy at the end of the third movement, Feldmann’s tone heated, and he held his poise at the end as the piano chord lingered on.

At the beginning of Schubert’s Fantasy in C D934 he demonstrated exemplary legato bow control above Boris Kusnezow’s fine piano playing. In the Allegretto he was crisp, light and dancing, and there was simple, lyrical beauty in the Andantino followed by agile passagework in the variations. To the C major Allegro he brought grandeur and jubilation, before finishing with tremendous brio in the final Presto.

Tim Homfray