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"Sharp was both elegant
and impassioned in her playing, in turn sweetly lyrical and dazzlingly
virtuosic. As soon as the piece finished, all I wanted was to hear it
performed again."
- San Francisco Classical Voice (Read the whole
article)
Robin Sharp
opened the program with the challenging Sonata for Violin Solo by Robert
Kurka, best known for his satiric opera The Good Soldier Schweik (just
now starting a month-long revival at Glimmerglass Opera in upstate New
York.) Kurka, who died of leukemia in his mid-30s, dedicated the
three-movement sonata to his wife May, who was present for the
reading. The piece itself is spiky with originality and
mastery of classical forms. It sings, dances, reflects and rhapsodizes,
and gains counterpoint through liberal use of double-stops. Its final
movement is given to a complex set of variations. Robin
Sharp negotiated its
sometimes-tortuous path with focus, clarity and heartfelt dedication.
San Francisco Classical Voice (Read
the whole article)
"The interplay
between lyricism and bursts of virtuosity makes this an imposing work
technically,
but a listener would be hard pressed to realize it. Sharp
seemed to have nothing to worry about except bringing her entire
expressive force to bear on the sonata's increasing complexity."
-Ken Smith, New York Review
"The violinist Robin Sharp....offered
a distinguished sonata afternoon. After the first bars of Bach's c
minor Sonata (BWV 1017) you could settle back and relax: The
sweetness of the tone, the spacious breadth of the bow phrasings never
failed in their effectiveness."
-Volker Fries, Cologne Rundschau Newspaper
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