1999-1998 Reviews
 
Recital with Martin Roscoe
Symphony Hall Brimingham
 

Forget Delius, Arnold Bax is British music's answer to the French impressionists. Tintageland The Garden of Fand are familiar enough explorations of light and space, but many of his lesser known orchestral and chamber works resonate with echoes of Debussy and his followers.

Shamefully, Bax is still not played as much as he deserves to be (how often, if at all, do the seven symphonies get an airing?) so the inclusion of his Sonata No 2 for violin and piano as the center piece of Tasmin Little and Martin Roscoe's recital was doubly welcome. Not only is it a great piece, powerfully evocative and colourful, but it was given with spellbinding commitment and technical aplomb.

What a wonderfully mature performer Tasmin Little now is, sweet and rich in tone, and blessed with a technique that both looks and sounds faultless. She and Roscoe, whose skills as an ensemble pianist are almost without equal, really got to the heart of this sonata, yielding to it's romantic imagination and impetus, and fully capturing its quixotic spirit.


David Hart, The Birmingham Post 29/3/99
 
Concert Review: Walton: Violin Concerto

 

REMARKABLE ALREADY AND COULD BE GREAT

At Günther Herbig's concert with the Hall, Tasmin Little played Walton's Violin Concerto, which can certainly stand alongside Elgar without embarrassment. In addition to rivalling Anne-Sophie Mutter in the haute couture department, she is that class as a violinist, the finest we have in Britain, I would say, (and I haven't forgotten Mr. K). Only very occasionally deficient in strength of tone, she projected the brilliance, vivacity, romanticism and Italianate languor of this concerto with complete assurance. Walton, I can assure her, would have loved everything about her performance.


Michael Kennedy, Sunday Telegraph 18/01/98
 
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