Leah Hollingsworth visits the Cathedral of St Paul in Burlington, VT, US, on 25 August 2026 for a concert of Ysaÿe, Perkinson, Dai Wei and Bartók, taking place as part of the Lake Champlain Music Festival
A full house welcomed young virtuoso violinist Joshua Brown to the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, and he opened the programme with a spectacular performance of ‘Ballade’, Ysaÿe’s Third Sonata for solo violin. He played with impeccable intonation and his approach to the many ritardandos and accelerandos in the work was deeply thoughtful. Also impressive was the cleanness of his string-crossing, which also came into its own in Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s Louisiana Blues Strut: A Cakewalk, which Brown imbued with elegance and colour.
Bella Hristova then gave the world premiere of Dai Wei’s Weighless for solo violin. Wei was a LCCMF Young Composer in 2018, so it marked a fitting return to the festival and Hristova impressively brought the work to life. That was no mean feat, given its demands, its outer sections conveying the sense of controlled frenzy in what the composer has described as a ‘marathon of endurance’.
Violinist Soovin Kim, the festival’s co-artistic director, gave a magnificent introduction to Bartók’s Sonata for solo violin. Joshua Brown then returned for a performance that displayed great understanding of its architecture and a fine clarity of line, even if some of its more rustic elements were slightly underplayed.
LEAH HOLLINGSWORTH
Read: Bella Hristova: Milestones with Jaime Laredo at Carnegie Hall
Watch: Video premiere: Bella Hristova performs David Serkin Ludwig’s Violin Concerto no.2 ‘Paganiniana’
Read: Masterclass: Bella Hristova on Bruch Violin Concerto no.1, second movement
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