Review: Francesca Dego and Alessandro Taverna ignite the Wigmore Hall

Francesca Dego and Alessandro Taverna creating sparks together that ignited the Wigmore Hall as rarely seen .

An early Strauss Sonata of overwhelming exhilaration and excitement. I have not heard this sonata since by chance I heard Krystian Zimerman with Kyung Wha Chung play in an empty church in Chelsea where there was only Fou Ts’ong and a handful of people in the audience . I have never forgotten that experience but tonight I relived something of the same emotions The superb violin soaring above the streams of golden sounds that AT played with such fluidity and ease .Both playing with red hot passion but also moments of ravishing beauty.The piano lid fully open but with masterly ears that never allowed this big black beast to smother the solo violin.A Stradivarius violin in the hands of a violinist who could weave in and out of Strauss’s sumptuously rich textures with masterly ease.

It was the same in the Schoenberg that opened the programme , written in the last years of his life but with a mastery that could weave such sounds from the solo violin and that the piano could add shape and colour to a dynamic range of rhythmic intricacy and intensity.

But the best was yet to come with a ‘Kreutzer’Sonata played by two masters . Breathtaking rhythmic energy and a dynamic range of kaleidoscopic colour. Has the final chord of the first movement ever sounded so final or the opening so noble ? Sumptuous full sound from the piano in the Andante only to be so teasingly and wondrously varied by these two remarkable artists.A question and answer of extraordinary characterisation before the call to arms of the Finale and the race was on. Breathtaking ensemble as they played as one at breakneck speed with never the slightest doubt that this was a relentless tarantella of devilish proportions .

An even more passionate performance of the Brahms FAE Scherzo, played as an encore , with deep insinuating sounds from the piano that I have never been aware of before and a breathtaking drive from FD who swept all before her.

By great demand a slight morsel by Strauss the only other piece he wrote for violin and a fitting 150th anniversary tribute from two master musicians.

Christopher Axworthy