Violinist Robert McDuffie draws out warmth in Brahms and delights in virtuosity in Glass

It was a stroke of serendipity that the rainy weather that drove people indoors early in the evening was greeted by Johannes Brahms’ Violin Sonata No. 1 In G Major (Op. 78), which opened the chamber recital by American violinist Robert McDuffie.

- Chang Tou Liang

Violinist Robert McDuffie played minimalist composer Philip Glass' Second Violin Concerto, which McDuffie commissioned and premiered. PHOTO: LUCAS KWAI MING YANG

(LUCAS KWAI MING YANG)

This most retiring of the German composer’s three violin sonatas was nicknamed Regenlied or Rain Song, as its third movement is a reworking of a lied (Op. 59 No. 3) of the same title. The piano's repeated notes and shimmering textures were also thought to resemble the pitter-patter of raindrops.

Pianist Albert Tiu was the ever-responsive partner to a performance which emphasised beauty and warmth rather than outright virtuosity, with the violin’s lyrical lines eagerly lapped up by McDuffie. When stakes were raised in the first movement’s development, the temperature rose accordingly.