2003 Reviews
 
Berlin Philharmonic at the Kimmel
Philadelphia
 
.... and yet Sunday wasn't that unusual, except, of course, the Berliners haven't been to town in almost five decades. That alone would have made their sellout concert news. But they came with Rattle, their new music director, who seems to be about the only conductor these days with a career of superstar proportions. And they hosted London-born violinist Tasmin Little, whose towering interpretation of the Ligeti Violin Concerto will surely end her days of low name-recognition ....

.... Even listeners who had a low tolerance for Ligeti's dissonance and purposely approximate orchestral intonation had to admit that Little made this Violin Concerto her own. She was downright soulful in the cadenzas, and when up against the two-dozen-piece but fierce ensemble, she grew her sound from quiet and gauzy to one that conveyed an easy sense of triumph. Rattle, who may or may not have chosen the right orchestra, at least picked the right soloist.
 

Peter Dobrin, Nov. 18, 2003
Philadelphia Inquirer Music Critic
 
Berlin Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall
New York
 
"Ligeti’s Violin Concerto, dazzlingly executed by Tasmin Little, with Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic in coolly beautiful form. . . brought down the house with her confident, lyrical and entirely imaginative reading… Her instincts only confirmed her triumph, as did the ovations at the end, and further, it is not often that a packed Carnegie Hall is so effusive for a relatively recent piece."

Bruce Hodges, www.musicweb.uk.net, 20 November 2003


"The British violinist Tasmin Little was the formidable soloist in Mr. Ligeti’s concerto… Ms. Little wrote her own demonic cadenza, which brought the work to its blazing conclusion."

Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, 12 November 2003
 
BBC Promenade Concert 55
Royal Albert Hall, London
 
The Ligeti concerto was quite outstanding. Tasmin Little first played it under Rattle in his previous incarnation with the CBSO, and now delivers it quite magisterially. Her cool, silvery tone is ideally suited to a work in which the solo violin frequently has to thread itself between scudding clouds of notes, whether it is the swanee whistles and ocarinas of the second and fourth movements or the cascading chromatic scales of woodwind and strings in the third. The technical command was glorious too, and Little's cadenza (genuinely hers, for she takes Ligeti's option for soloists to provide their own) gave the work its final frisson. There really was creative tension here, for the only time in the evening.
 

Andrew Clements, The Guardian, 2 September 2003
 
BBC Promenade Concert 55
Royal Albert Hall, London
 
Sometimes unexpected instruments are given unexpectedly exalted moments, such as last night in György Ligeti’s Violin Concerto, dazzlingly executed by Tasmin Little, with Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic in coolly beautiful form. As some of the musicians put down their flutes, piccolos, and oboes, suddenly a shrill chorus of ocarinas leaped up, only
adding to the otherworldliness of Ligeti’s astonishing timbres. Little, who looked sensational in a sleek, shimmering, dare I say, Ligeti-esque dress in green and magenta, brought down the house with her confident, lyrical and entirely imaginative reading.
 

Bruce Hodges at
www.musicweb-international.com
 
BBC Promenade Concert 55
Royal Albert Hall, London
 
Tasmin Little’s control of the fiendish solo part was quite simply exemplary, the ensemble including scordatura (re-tuned) violin and viola and a band of ocarinas played by the winds, animated and agile. The composer’s challenge to his soloist to provide their own cadenza (placed at the very end of the five movement work) was here taken up by Little and although not always in keeping with Ligeti’s request that it "should be hectic throughout", drew material from the previous movements intelligently and effectively.
 

Christopher Thomas at www.musicweb.uk.net
 
BBC Promenade Concert 55
Royal Albert Hall, London
 
On to another Hungarian, Ligeti, whose brilliant Violin Concerto was receiving its first Proms performance as part of celebrations marking the composer's 80th birthday. The soloist, Tasmin Little, is steeped in this work, and the hushed thread of sound she spun as the music emerged from nothingness was as impressive as the virtuosic display later on. The haunting second movement, in which wind players take up a “chorale” on ocarinas, was no less mesmerising than the unstoppable force of what follows or the cartoon-like effects in the finale, where the soloist bravely supplied her own, seamlessly fitting cadenza. Little, Rattle and orchestra were at one in conjuring up this coruscating music.
 

John Allison, The Times, Sept 2003
 
BBC Promenade Concert 55
Royal Albert Hall, London
 
The Ligeti concerto had obviously been prepared with loving care, and had a terrific soloist in Tasmin Little, who had written her own thoughtful but dazzling cadenza for the finale. The earlier four movements are bizarre, stranding the violinist with mechanical ostinati for pages at a time, or highlighting the winds lengthily (Ligeti's string-section is hardly more than chamber-size) while she remains silent, or making her play with exaggerated theatrical vibrato throughout the Andante - the heart of the piece - along with dissonant chorales of ocarinas and slide-whistles. Nonetheless the concerto got a rapturous, if bemused, reception: that nervous soul needn't have worried.
 

Financial Times, September 2003
 
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