Review: Virtuoso violinist Leonidas Kavakos gives a breathtaking Schubert Club recital

If I were to suggest that one of the most captivating concerts this year consisted simply of one violinist standing in a spotlight and playing three pieces, perhaps you’d think that too dry for your tastes.

But would it help if I told you that the concert consisted of half of J.S. Bach’s solo violin works, and that his sonatas and partitas might be the most intensely intimate encounters with that composer’s heart and soul that you may ever encounter? And how about if I added that the performer was among a handful of the world’s greatest violinists right now, one who just received a Grammy nomination for one of his increasingly frequent collaborations with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emanuel Ax?

Such was the case Tuesday afternoon, when Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos performed the first of two Schubert Club International Artist Series recitals at St. Paul’s Ordway Concert Hall, each featuring half of Bach’s Six Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin. And what a privilege it was to hear an artist of this caliber offering some of the most emotionally confessional music Bach ever created. This was a breathtaking performance, one so engrossing as to transport audience members to a place of profound awe and respect for both composer and performer.

When Bach wrote these six pieces, he was processing the death of his first wife, and there were points during Tuesday’s concert at which Kavakos seemed to be channeling the composer’s grief quite palpably. But there were also dances of delight, digitally demanding fugues, emotional exchanges between disparate voices and echoed phrases that detoured the mood into unexpected directions. Permeating it all was an amazing combination of technical skill and interpretive depth.

Tuesday’s program featured two of Bach’s three sonatas for solo violin sandwiched around one of his partitas. A tone of intense introspection was established quickly with the opening Sonata No. 2 in A minor, Kavakos drawing listeners ever deeper with a fugue full of fire, following it with a slow movement roiling with conflicting emotions.

Bach’s sonatas follow a four-movement pattern, slow movements alternating with fast, but the partitas are closer in structure to the suites he wrote for keyboard instruments, each movement built upon a different dance style that was popular with courtiers or commoners. The Partita No. 3 in E major featured two of the concert’s most familiar themes, and Kavakos managed to make each a frolicsome dance with an intense undertow, gravitas murmuring beneath the sprightliness, Kavakos’ fluid lines simultaneously boisterous and urgent.

Most compelling of all was the Sonata No. 3 in C major. Its opening Adagio proved an absorbing journey, while the fugue movement contained some astounding examples of this violinist’s virtuosity. A three-part fugue didn’t sound at all as if being produced by one Stradivarius, a bow and four fingers, nor did a fast section during which a melody slithered between an insistently repeated chord.

And what a thrill ride that sonata’s finale was, the music feeling something like a high-speed race around winding mountain passes. At its conclusion, the audience exploded into applause, according Kavakos the most exuberant, “Bravo!”-laden standing ovation I’ve heard a recital receive in several years. After three bows, he offered an encore: A movement from one of the sonatas experienced by those fortunate enough to have a ticket to Wednesday night’s concert.

What: Solo violin works by J.S. Bach

When: 7:30 p.m. Wed.

Where: Ordway Concert Hall, 345 Washington St., St. Paul

Tickets: $28-$75 (students and children free), available at 651-292-3268 or schubert.org

Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.