MYLOGO

“Gave a particularly remarkable performance ... capturing the joy of the music with clear musical authority.”

 “Requires not only technical competence but a real knowledge of how an orchestra works. Her dialogues with strings, oboe and clarinet were touching and precise...Wang’s tone is wonderfully sweet and full, the envy of many an aged violinist.” 

“Wang’s performance of Brahms Violin Concerto was pure gold…masterful technique ... Her hands were deft and sure, her bowing a technical marvel her fingering fluid and accurate. Wang’s upper register was especially clear and clean, a rich pleasure to hear. She was, as well, attuned to the concerto’s emotional register ... there was yearning, there was a sigh mellowing into resignation ... She was a picture of concentration and poise, a young performer of prodigious talent.” 

 “With her performance and great talent, she was able to capture the audience, which is necessary to win first prize at such an international competition.”  

“The piece de resistance of the evening was the Brahms Double Concerto for Violin and Cello …They exuded confidence and were set to have fun. Playing from memory added immeasurably to their evening’s accomplishment and noticeable rapport with one another…impressive talents…perfect end to another bowl season.” 

 “The centerpiece of the concert was the impressive playing of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E-minor played by guest-artist Linda Wang…Her training and her experience was in full force as she maneuvered skillfully between the difficult passages and landing squarely in full tone in the second movement “Andante”…The audience exploded in applause and shouts at the conclusion."

“Linda Wang...exceptionally talented, provided a fitting conclusion to a most successful season...not only a great technique but also a high degree of confidence…The performers were flawless...”

“Her performance was characterized by musical maturity, combined with abundant temperament, personal style, and original creativity.”

 “Anyone who dares to tackle Bach's extraordinary (and extraordinarily difficult) Chaconne and Wieniawski's amazing (and amazingly difficult) Variations on an Original Theme must clearly have the chops - which Wang possesses in abundance.Yet, it was in the transparent textures of Debussy's late G-minor Sonata and in a sweetly evocative traditional Chinese Fisherman's Song that the violinist made the strongest impression…Wang produced a feathery light tone that brought an immediacy and communicativeness to the Debussy…Wang's way with the Chaconne was impressive in technique and in pacing. Her dynamic range during those thrilling arpeggios added fresh excitement… DU is lucky to have Wang's talents as violinist and, as we discovered in the encore, pedagogue.”

 Every time I think I've done a roundup of oustanding Bay Area ensembles, I discover that I've omitted someone. (Several "someones," generally; this is such a music-rich environment that it becomes difficult to track them all.) The New Pacific Trio, comprising pianist Sonia Leong, violinist Linda Wang, and cellist Nina Flyer, is one that slipped in under the radar until Sunday's concert at Old First Church. The program was offbeat; the playing was marvelous.

The performance (of Saint-Saëns'Second Piano Trio) was about all one could want. Wang and Flyer are uncommonly well-matched players, Flyer with the grittier sound, Wang with a smooth but intense tone that stood up well to Flyer's, and to the lid-full-up piano too. Leong, meanwhile, played the brilliant piano part effortlessly and with a great deal of flair, though perhaps a little too much care not to cover the strings. These were players who knew when to dig in passionately and when to lighten up, and (what is rarer) did both things well.

 The Suk Elegie that followed showed the NPT in another light....Here both string players were altogether more sultry than they'd been in the Saint-Saëns, taking their cues from the rich lines and their underlying harmonies.

 After intermission came a terrific performance of the Shostakovich Second Trio, one remarkable for exaggerating in all the right places. The opening (with the cello in ferociously-difficult artificial harmonics that I don't think I've heard performed better live), was spellbinding, and Wang's duetting with Flyer had just the right note: not too obviously flesh-and-blood, but standing off a little — as it were, doing a ghost the courtesy of pretending to be one herself. The ensuing Scherzo certainly lacked neither flesh nor blood (nor guts); it's one of those brutal objects-in-six-sharps that Shostakovich favored, inexplicably relieved by a fresh, free tune that emerges a couple times and then gets clubbed into obscurity again. Then comes a passacaglia, full of densely-packed chords, but with a couple of pure triads in there just to make clear where you are in the eight-bar pattern. And then the finale with its ethnic-Jewish tunes, played Sunday with steely clarity. The NPT players couldn't exactly prevent the compositorial tying-the-threads-together at the end of the finale from sounding contrived. (Here's the passacaglia again! And here's the opening theme, only with the violin on the high notes and the cello on the low ones!) But they did make the ending somehow dignified and moving.