Reviews

Lawrence is a virtuoso with enormous depth. The first and third movements found him mastering the swift passages with agility, sparkling tone and rhythm as crisp as clicking castanets. For the second movement he fashioned the long melodic lines with incomparable care. He builds phrases as a jeweler strings pearls, choosing tones for their shape and then arranging them in perfect sequence.

Lawrence is a take-charge guy, an assertive player who projects a strong musical personality. Committed and communicative…he convinces you by the sheer verve and brilliant of his approach.

Lawrence delivered a brilliant performance which enhanced Sibelius’ lush romantic melodies with a full palette of instrumental colors—now a silky high pianissimo, next a set of rich full double stops, then a throaty low register. Virtuosity passages were easy and clean but did not dominate the performance. The audience answered with a standing ovation.

Lawrence swept through the work in the best tradition of virtuoso playing—but with an important addition. His interpretation had that indefinable something that, for want of a better word, shall simply be called heart.

Lawrence was an assertive, vigorous soloist, charging through long passages of intense bowing then shifting to elegant long melodic lines.

Violinist Kevin Lawrence impressed the Discovery Theater audience with a passionate rending of the Concerto in E minor by Mendelssohn. His dramatic style brought depth; his incredible phrasing and lighting bolt trills were astonishing. Few people resisted leaping to their feet in congratulations.

What a refreshing concert by two fine performers! “Franco-Belgian” was a totally convincing exploration of the depth and variety in the repertoire.

Violin virtuosity was offered by Kevin Lawrence, the festival’s artistic director, in Francis Poulenc’s often angry 1943 Sonata for Violin and Piano. Lawrence delivered all its fire as well as its tenderness.

Maurice Ravel wrote that his Sonata for violin and piano is for two “essentially incompatible instruments, which not only do not sink their differences, but accentuate the incompatibility to an even greater degree.”…Lawrence and Shteinberg played the socks off this masterpiece! Both players brought out the full palette of instrumental color and tone. Lawrence’s intonation was immaculate and both his and Shteinberg’s articulation were crystal clear no matter the tempo. “Blues” was a delight as Lawrence’s violin mimicked the wail of a saxophone while Shteinberg made guitar-like strumming sounds from the piano.

Great heaps of energy and bravura