Early 1990s Press Articles

April 10, 1992

CONCERT PREVIEW; Age no barrier for young violinist's talent

By Scott Duncan, The Orange County Register, California

These are the days of the Russian prodigy in classical music. Evgeny Kissin created a sensation a few years ago, when the pianist toured Japan at 14 and soon after signed a recording contract with a major label. Now Maxim Vengerov, at only 17, is creating the same word-of-mouth as a violinist. He arrives with the Moscow Philharmonic tonight at the Performing Arts Center, with critical acclaim and a new exclusive recording contract with Teldec. Vengerov's two recordings on Teldec - a Beethoven and Brahms recital disc and a concerto disc with the Paganini First Violin Concerto and Saint-Saens' "Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso" - said critic John von Rhein of Vengerov last year: "Remember that name, because he soon will be the toast of the violin world. "

Like Kissin, Vengerov's overwhelming talent has allowed him to bypass the usual competition circuit. In the one competition he did enter - 1990's Carl Flesch International Violin Competition - he won first prize, as well as a special prize for interpretation, the press prize, and the audience prize.

Vengerov, who was born in Novosibirsk, the capital of Western Siberia, has relied more on mentors such as Zubin Mehta, who engaged him for a number of concerts with the Israel Philharmonic, and Isaac Stern, who has aided his career as he has so many young violinists.

"I come to him something like two or three times a year," Vengerov said, over the telephone from Lincoln, Neb., where he was performing last week. "I take advice and I play for him. He always advises me to say something through my music. I want to listen to the opinion of great musicians. "

Vengerov grew up in a musical family. His father was an oboist in the Novosibirsk Philharmonic, a quite respectable orchestra that grew in stature when many musicians fled the hard times in Moscow during World War II. "I knew I wanted to be a violinist at 3 years old, when I heard a recording of David Oistrakh, which made a very big impression on me," he said.

Vengerov began lessons with a local teacher, Madame Turchaninova, who led him to Zakhar Bron and eventually Moscow. When Bron emigrated from the Soviet Union to Germany, the entire Vengerov family followed. The family now lives in Tel Aviv.

Vengerov says he does is not bothered that his concert career is taking off so soon, when other violinists are taking time to develop artistically. "I've never worried about it because I started very early, and I've been performing serious concerts since I was 5,"he said. "I don't feel my musical interests are limited; I like classical music and modern contemporary music. " He says he has no interest in being a "mechanical" virtuoso. "A good musician is not only technique, but someone who can deliver the music to the audience. "

Maxim Vengerov
Who: Violinist appearing with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra,
conducted by Jansug Kakhidze.
What: Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, Weber's Overture to "Oberon"
and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5.
When: Tonight at 8.
Where: Performing Arts Center.

May 2, 1992, Saturday, 

The most exciting newcomer in years

By JACOB SISKIND; The Ottawa Citizen

If you can't get around to major musical centres on a regular basis, the best way to keep track of new, emerging talent is through the medium of recordings. Both small and major labels are constantly looking for new faces as well as new repertoire.

One of the most exciting violinistic talents to emerge on the world scene in years is Maxim Vengerov, a Soviet-born and trained player with a fluency that recalls the young Heifetz and a sweet sound that is as seductive as any you are likely to hear.

Vengerov was 13 when he made his debut in the West and critics and managers were falling all over themselves in sheer ecstasy, comparing him to Kreisler and Oistrakh. He was 14 when he made his first digital recording in 1989, for the Biddulph label, a company that specializes in historical violin recordings.
The album includes some real finger breakers, like the Ernst Variations on 'The Last Rose of Summer' and the Waxman Fantasy on Themes from 'Carmen', that he tosses off with devastating effortlessness, and also contains a sweet voiced performance of the Schubert Fantasy in C that is astonishing for its sensitivity.
There's also music by Tchaikovsky, Ysaye, Ravel (Tzigane) and Debussy. The recording is excellent (Biddulph digital CD LAW-001; 73 minutes).

Vengerov has since been picked up by Teldec and for it he has recorded the Beethoven Kreutzer Sonata and the Brahms Sonata No. 2, Op. 100. Here the demands are musical rather than technical and even for a 16 year old there should be more substance than you hear in the Beethoven. The Brahms is much more successful.
The tone is magnificent and the playing impeccable, but he should be saying a lot more than he does (Teldec digital CD 74001; 60 minutes).

June 21, 1992, Sunday, Home Edition

ON THE RECORD: A MOMENT IN SUN FOR FIDDLING PHENOMS

 By HERBERT GLASS, Los Angeles Times

For the hugely hyped Russian-born Israeli violinist Maxim Vengerov, creating a stir has become old hat, despite his mere 18 years. Vengerov's just-released showpiece program (Teldec 73266) is likely to win him even more friends.
What fun it is to hear Vengerov tear into the pyrotechnics of Paganini's D-major Concerto with such gleeful abandon and then play its more subdued passages with such care (but not to the point of studiedness) and sweetly rotund tone. His efforts are backed by the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta's energetic direction.

Further pleasures are provided by Vengerov's uncloyingly warm playing of those ultimate showpieces for the sensitive virtuoso, Saint-Saens' "Introduction et Rondo Capriccioso" and "Havanaise."

If the young man doesn't show the demonic bite of a Jascha Heifetz in Franz Waxman's delectably vulgar "Carmen Fantasy," well, there's only one Heifetz -- and perhaps only one Vengerov, who might steal even more hearts if he emerged as the charismatic young phenom who returned portamento to its rightful place among the important expressive ornaments of the Romantic style.

A simultaneous coupling (Teldec 74001) of Beethoven's "Kreutzer" Sonata with the A-major Sonata of Brahms, which seems predicated on showing Vengerov's "maturity," is not well chosen for a performer of his tender years.
In both vibrato-laden, relentlessly loud performances (Teldec's close-up recording is a contributory factor) the violinist sounds less comfortable than his seasoned pianist, Alexander Markovich. At this stage, Vengerov does not seem willing or able to speak intimately

June 25, 1992, Thursday,

Calgary Herald (Alberta, Canada)
 
Paganini: Violin Concerto No. 1; Waxman; Saint-Saens - Maxim Vengerov; Mehta (Teldec). Superlatives are the invariable response wherever the sensational young violinist Maxim Vengerov touches down to play. The confident virtuosity, disciplined intensity and - rarest by far - the multifaceted personality evident in his performances have earned him a reputation firmly supported by his first recordings. One showcases his work with orchestra, notably in a warmly imaginative account of Paganini's D major Concerto and Saint-Saens' Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso. Teldec has also issued a disc of Vengerov playing Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata and Brahms' A major Sonata in performances of startling maturity and insight. Rating: A.

CD review Brahms Beethoven recital
The San Francisco Chronicle

Maxim Vengerov, violin; Alexander Markovich, pianio; (TELDEC 90311-74001-2)
 The young violinist Maxim Vengerov's March 9 recital at Berkeley's First Congregational Church, under the auspices of the University of California's CAL series, is preceded by a CD that is a fine introduction to the artist. Vengerov, a 19-year-old from Novosibirsk, Siberia, and his pianist, Alexander Markovich, 29, of Moscow, give very tasteful performances in excellent style of Beethoven's Violin-Piano Sonata No. 9, in A, ''Kreutzer,'' poised, classical and vital, and Brahms's Violin- Piano Sonata No. 2, in A, Op. 100. (The Brahms is scheduled for their recital here.) This is serious, thoughtful music-making by an accomplished violinist.

Tues AUGUST 10th 1993 

NY recital Avery Fisher

The veteran pianist Lilian Kallir contributed a fluent and gracious reading of Mozart's Concerto No. 19 in F (K. 459). The teen-age violinist Maxim Vengerov gave a remarkably assured and pure-toned account of Mozart's Concerto No. 3 in G (K. 216).

August 15, 1993, Sunday

Pick of the Proms  

Sunday Times

The dazzling young Russian virtuoso, Maxim Vengerov, is the soloist on Thursday night in Prokofiev's Violin Concert No 1, part of another BBC SODavis concert which also features the premiere of a BBC com-mission, Hawthorn, by Nicholas Sackman (who will give a pre-Prom talk at 5.45pm), and Debussy's La Mer. At Saturday's Prom, pianist Stephen Kovacevich conducts the National Youth Chamber Orchestra in a pro-gramme of Wagner, Webern, Beethoven and Strauss (the Horn Concerto No 2, with David Pyatt as soloist).