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Originally Posted by milkpowder /img/forum/go_quote.gif
HAHA!!!! I don't think I can go to sleep now... It's 1:33am and I'm enjoying Head-Fi banter while listening to Vengerov play Schubert Fantasy in C
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{I had to pause for a second -- "It's 1:33am..." -- but it's 1:31am now in NYC and your post shows as 8:39pm… and … oh. Scotland. Right. So -- since you'll be waking up in just a few hours, GOOD MORNING!}
Haven't heard him play that … though, actually, there are still quite a good number of his works that I haven't heard. Love Ysaye sonatas (!!!), Brahms with Daniel Barenboim, the Virtuoso solo pieces of course, his master class broadcast on Ovation network, etc.
I've certainly seen him do some uneven and over the top performances (and sometimes all over the map and off the notes), but controversial and volatile tho' he is, I'll take the flamboyance (plus the great heart and muscular/mind-boggling technique) for the brilliance that often blazes thru, rather than pristine but safe ("correct") that his detractors would prefer. I even enjoyed his experimental interpretation/performance that included contemporary, blazing solid-body electric fiddle and tango (dance) duet, just for his courage to explore, extend and challenge himself.
Whatever the cognoscenti say about his showmanship and ebullience, I felt in watching his broadcast master class that he was able to actually confer his insights to his students and enable them to understand and play their pieces several levels above where they started, in just a brief session. He is possessed of a genius and great depth of understanding of music. Certainly his style is not suited to every composer, and I don't think I'd love hearing him interpret the Bach Sonatas & Partitas, but that not important. I thoroughly enjoy so much of his works, and his big Russian/global heart.