thu 28/03/2024

Thomas Zehetmair, Wigmore Hall | reviews, news & interviews

Thomas Zehetmair, Wigmore Hall

Thomas Zehetmair, Wigmore Hall

An evening of solo Bach proves more monologue than dialogue

Thomas Zehetmair: Rough intellectualism demands that listeners sit less than comfortably

Perhaps it was the effect of the elaborately mosaicked and marbled stage of the Wigmore Hall, but when a black-clad Thomas Zehetmair stepped out last night to occupy this space with just his violin and Bach for company, the image was incongruous. Even devotees of the hall will surely acknowledge the fussiness of its aesthetic appeal, the lingering visual excesses of a bygone age making it as unlikely a setting for Zehetmair’s deconstructed style as for the sharp architectural edges of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin. Yet host them it did, and in a characteristically uncompromising performance, Zehetmair managed to bring his comfortably sat audience along with him into an altogether less warm and secure place.

Perhaps it was the effect of the elaborately mosaicked and marbled stage of the Wigmore Hall, but when a black-clad Thomas Zehetmair stepped out last night to occupy this space with just his violin and Bach for company, the image was incongruous. Even devotees of the hall will surely acknowledge the fussiness of its aesthetic appeal, the lingering visual excesses of a bygone age making it as unlikely a setting for Zehetmair’s deconstructed style as for the sharp architectural edges of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin. Yet host them it did, and in a characteristically uncompromising performance, Zehetmair managed to bring his comfortably sat audience along with him into an altogether less warm and secure place.

Zehetmair's Bach is about strife and suffering, refusing the easy consolations of melody or technical facility

Share this article

Comments

the elaborately mosaicked and marbled stage ... Last time I looked at the stage of Wigmore Hall, 75 minutes ago, it was made of light stained/varnished wood. Are your observations on the music to be taken as accurately as that on the Hall? The security words on this site, because thewy include nonsense, are excessivley difficult to decipher. Maybe that's deliberate.

Add comment

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters