It is no surprise that the young violinist Vadim Repin should be an idiomatic interpreter of Prokofiev's First Violin Sonata. Born in Siberia, Repin has built his solo career on the Russian romantic repertoire, and is an acclaimed performer of the Prokofiev and Shostakovich concertos. His recital at the Wigmore Hall with pianist Alexander Melnikov revealed that he is just as impressive a chamber musician as he is a concerto soloist.
His strident tone was ideally suited to the vivid colours of the Prokofiev, and he gave the opening movement a steely austerity as intense melodic lines gave way to ghostly, shimmering scales. He played the second movement as a brutal and grotesque scherzo, while the slower third movement provided a moment of uneasy calm. Repin's rapport with Melnikov was brilliantly displayed in the way they timed the end of this slow movement, as they exchanged a sequence of bizarre gestures - a repeated violin line, a chimed piano chord - and the music ground slowly to a halt. The fourth was an explosion of energy, but the piece ended by revisiting the spectral scales from the first movement.
What was surprising about the programme was that Repin's approach proved equally successful in music by Schubert, Schumann, and Schoenberg. He brought a convincing structural clarity to Schubert's Fantasy in C major, a work that can sound like a diffuse collection of character pieces. Schubert's outrageously difficult violin writing invites a showy, attention-seeking style, but Repin resisted the temptation to indulge in virtuosic pyrotechnics. Instead, he and Melnikov sustained a powerful musical momentum through Schubert's kaleidoscope of musical forms, from the visionary stillness of the opening music to the rustic rondo and extended variations.
Schumann's A minor Violin Sonata is an even more radical solution to the problems of large-scale form. There is no slow movement, but instead an allegretto movement that is a volatile mixture of lyrical and dramatic music. Repin gave a forceful and committed performance, emphasising the detailed thematic connections between the movements.
Yet it was Schoenberg's Phantasy Op 47 that was the most revelatory performance of the programme. Repin's interpretative insight encompassed everything from the expressionist angst of the opening to the intensity of the final climax.
