Prom 10: Intimacy on a large scale
"This performance of Moeran’s Concerto was something of a revelation. Rarely performed and recorded, it ­benefited from this considered and sympathetic performance by the BBC Philharmonic and violinist Tasmin Little. They never forced the music into places that it did not want to go, but treated it lovingly and carefully. Little was unafraid of taking her time in solo passages, ensuring that she extracted all the feeling from each note. Her intense concentration meant it did not matter that the Albert Hall was not entirely filled with sound, since Little was utterly engaging. Astonishingly, Little and the BBC Philharmonic had achieved the impossible: they had turned the Albert Hall into an intimate space."
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"Tasmin Little was the soloist in Moeran’s Violin Concerto, and her sound, as ever, was a thing of wonder: her poise, her shamelessly luscious vibrato and the iridescent sheen of her tone making you imagine how Heifetz might have played this beautiful, under-rated work.

Mena responded not with understatement (how much great British music are we missing when we thoughtlessly dismiss it as “pastoral”?), but with red-blooded passion and a lively sense of colour. . ."

"We'd also had a mesmerising performance from the great Tasmin Little of Ligeti's tough and challenging Violin Concerto, whose rustling, buzzing and swarming pages bemused and baffled many listeners (who made a point of telling me); I enjoyed it, and thrilled at the moments of raw, naked Hungarian folk music that periodically poked through the busy texture."

"...And with soloist Tasmin Little, in Ligeti’s translucent Violin Concerto, his sensitive control of its beguiling textures – the eerie wailing of the ocarinas, or the unnerving string clusters that surround the solo violin like an intricate gossamer web – was needle-sharp and compelling, backed up by Little’s immaculate, filigree interpretation."

I can't imagine a more rousing start to a violin recital than Tasmin Little and Martin Roscoe powering through Brahms's youthfully exuberant single movement Sonatensatz.

It was a reassuring start, too. I immediately liked Little's full-bodied sound, massively energetic and a little gritty as the Brahms demanded, but focused, not strident. Then later in the movement her quiet sound proved equally engaging, with a tender fragility.

Meanwhile, Roscoe took no prisoners with the first theme's pounding, driving chords, then withdrew allowing Little's delicate sound to glimmer in the slower sections. With the colourful works elsewhere in the programme, Beethoven's sonatas Op 12 No 2 and 3 were shown up as completely vanilla. No 3 was at least full of virtuosity, which the pair handled with remarkable ease – a crowd-pleaser for largely acrobatic reasons.

Conversely, the duo revealed hidden depths in Schubert's rarely performed Sonata in A minor, an understated piece with a melancholy, slightly abrupt ending, perhaps asking the question to which the Franck is the answer.

Champions of the Franck sonata are correct, it's a wonderful piece, and Little's affinity with it was apparent in this affectionate reading. When the third movement settled on its closing melody, it found a peace and tranquillity that utterly clarified the sonata's romantic programme.

Martin Roscoe convincingly spent the whole evening in the role of second soloist rather than accompanist, thanks to the choice of repertoire and his fine instinct for when to play with a bit of portent.

Ensemble problems were few and far between and the balance was largely impressive, especially since Little projects at all dynamic levels without resorting to wide vibrato. Both players were committed to great musical dialogue throughout and the delightful close canons in the Franck's finale seemed a fitting culmination.