"Oh, wow," a guy on the front row in the Great Hall of the Clinton Presidential Center blurted into the normally silent break between movements of classical music.
He couldn't help it. Violinist Vadim Gluzman had just wowed the audience Tuesday evening at the Arkansas Symphony's River Rhapsodies Series chamber music concert with the first movement of Prokofiev's Sonata for Solo Violin, a program substitution made that afternoon.
Gluzman, the symphony's 2014-15 Richard Sheppard Arnold Artist of Distinction, had already charmed the capacity audience with his introduction of the 1947 piece, which was commissioned for, but never performed by, violin ensembles that played in unison.
"The [Russian] government said, 'You have to write life-affirming, happy music, or else,'" he joked.
The piece was life-affirming and joyous, transmitted through Gluzman's 1690 Stradivarius and his body, crouching, swaying, expressive from his toes to his eyebrows.
Algimantis Staskevicius, violin; Tatiana Kotcherguina, viola; and Felice Farrell, cello, opened the program with the Serenade in C major, op.10, by Ernst von Dohnanyi, a piece that showcased both melodic and percussive properties of stringed instruments.
It was followed by The Featherlight Ballet by Stephanie Berg, performed by the DDG Trio -- oboists Leanna Booze and Lorraine Duso Kitts, oboe, and Beth Wheeler, English horn.
Berg, 28, was in the audience and introduced the piece, which was commissioned for the trio.
Composers can be "control freaks," she said. For the second movement, "I decided to see how much I could do with next to nothing." The trio took turns with the next-to-nothing two-note motif that resembled bird call in its simplicity, repetition and variation.
Gluzman led Kiril Laskarov, violin; Ryan Mooney and Katrina Weeks, viola; and David Gerstein, cello, to close the program with the String Quintet No. 1 in a minor by Max Bruch.
The triumphant last note was followed by a communal "Wooo!" from the audience, just like people watching the last great burst of fireworks.
Metro on 03/04/2015