Portsmouth Festivities- Tasmin Little and the London Mozart Players

Tasmin Little and the London Mozart Players, Portsmouth Cathedral, Friday 19 June

Tasmin Little is so radiantly cheerful that there's never any doubt that she is enjoying the music as much if not more than anybody else. She is immediately engaged in everything that is going on, turning to conduct a few bars during the violin rests whenever she can.
She conducted the Overture to Marriage of Figaro before the pace slackened in Seigfried Idyll, as redolent of a passing English summer as any of those pieces specifically designed to evoke one. But it was when Tasmin brought out her own violin in The Lark Ascending, which is the genuine article, that the concert became something special. The cathedral acoustic displayed the clarity of Tasmin's playing superbly well and her quick fingerwork was made startling by the detail. It is a sumptuous and evocative piece whether it is quite one's favourite or not, and here it was given an exemplary rendition. The advantages of live performance over any recording become much clearer at times like this.
In the second half, Beethoven's Violin Concerto was inevitably more substantial than anything that had gone before. At once stately and with a storm in his heart, Beethoven is majestic and all encompassing. The drumbeat motif that begins the first movement recurred throughout while Tasmin used the cadenzas to express a dramatic range of emotions from doubt and darkness through to the playfulness of the second movement's well-known final theme. Her playing is confident, positive and compelling, she is a warm and friendly performer apparently playing for the sheer joy of it rather than with specific points to make.
The programme built towards a resounding climax, becoming more involving as it developed in compass and musicality so that no encore could have satisfactorily followed it and I, possibly for the first time, joined the several who gave it a standing ovation.