Wairarapa Times 16th September 2004.
Six years ago Kazakh violin virtuoso Marat Bisengaliev came to the Wairarapa, his playing a revelation to concert goers. Thanks to his friend Howard Smith, assisted by Ed Cooke, he came again, after a Russian concerto series with the NGC Wellington Sinfonia.
Word had got about that this would be an unmissable event for classical music lovers and so it proved. An audience which demanded extra rows of chairs gave a standing ovation and stamped its feet. Bisengaliev, accompanied by sparkling pianist Rachel Thomson, had delivered a magnificent recital, ending with three encores. Local children came forward in groups - a delightful touch - and presented masses of daffodils.
The programme followed a fairly predictable pattern beginning with Tomaso Vitali's 17th Century baroque 'Chaconne'. This was a surprisingly unrestrained, emotional work of contrasts between major theme and variations, very Italian, and it immediately captured its audience with its technical exploits.
In J.S.Bach's Sonata No.2 in A, Bisengaliev, partnered with equal responsibility by Thomson, ably interpreted its difference in its Germanic temperament after the Vitali. In four alternating slow-fast movements there was less dazzling display - instead it had more grandeur, plus serene legato breaking into sprightly, sunny rhythms.
Cesar Franck's late 19th Century masterpiece, his Sonata in A, embodies a marvellous full flowering of Romanticism. Franck's work demands great sensitivity in the handling of voluptuous melody, plangency and soaring arpeggio passages, culminating in high single notes. HereBisengaliev, with his powerful Galliano violin, created a golden bouquet of complex sound.
The second half of the programme brought out all the pyrotechnics, from Albeniz's flamenco-influenced Asturias, to Milstein's 'Paganiniana' with its left hand pizzicato and harmonic(s) flourishes. This was devilish virtuosity, unbelievable to see, but always temperamentally graceful, as in Kreisler's 'Praeludium and Allegro', the gypsy-inspired Wieniawski 'Variations' and Ravel's stunning ' 'Tzigane'.
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