Globe's Jeremy Eichler on Tetzlaff: "nothing more was required"

Jeremy Eichler's review of Christian Tetzlaff's unaccompanied violin recital last Sunday is in today's Boston Globe:

"There were no gimmicks in Jordan Hall Sunday night. No semi-staging. No actors employed. No mood lighting. No screen projections to help us feel the music. There was not even a pianist to accompany it.

There was only one deeply serious artist, the violinist Christian Tetzlaff, alone with his instrument on a completely empty stage. It turned out that, for one of the most rewarding concerts in recent memory, nothing more was required."

Read all of A lone violin, when nothing more is needed.

Christian Tetzlaff, sublime Bach

Christian Tetzlaff

Violinist Christian Tetzlaff's program was all J.S. Bach, all of Bach's unaccompanied sonatas and partitas, in fact, so it was not a complete representation of what Boston audiences will hear on January 31 at Jordan Hall. However, according to Allan Kozinn of the New York Times, Tetzlaff's performance (as well as the program) was sublime.

Bach's Sonata No. 3 in C and Partita No 2 in D minor, both of which were on Sunday's 92nd Street Y program and are mentioned in the review, will be played in Boston. But we will also hear Eugène Ysaÿe's Sonata for solo violin and for Paganinni caprices. Hear is a snippet of Kozinn's review to whet your appetite:

"Technique is never an issue with this violinist. The clarity and
solidity he brings to the music’s chordal writing remain among the most
striking characteristics of his Bach playing, as does the sharp
articulation he uses to suggest independent lines of counterpoint. What
has deepened is the intensity of the emotional charge he draws from
this music, in readings that match Bach’s 18th-century ingenuity with
passion and warmth in the here and now."

Read all of Emphasizing Bach's Unity.