Thomas Wikman Reviews
Music of Baroque Right At Home In Another Era (cont)
Chicago Tribune Thursday, January 16, 1997
by Lawrence Johnson, Special To The Tribune
It seems unlikely that Antonio
Brunetti, the Salzburg first violinist,
could have played Mozart's
Violin Concerto No.3 in G Major
with the graceful fluency and natural
expression of Music of the
Baroque concertmaster Elliott
Golub. Indeed, Golub's
timbre-lean, silvery and firmly
focused-proved ideally suited to
Mozart's music. If the violinist's
poised playing of the Adagio's
long lines was undermined by an
heavy and unsubtle accompaniment,
soloist and orchestra were
in perfect accord in the outer
movements, where Golub's light
touch and easy virtuosity were
matched by his colleagues' buoyant
support.
The elegance and high spirits of
the Mozart works were nicely
leavened by the darker shadows
of Haydn's Symphony No. 44,
"Trauer." Here Wikman led his
players in a tautly dramatic reading
that underlined the minor key
drama of Haydn in distinctly less
jocular mode.
