Spalding Guardian - When simple things add up to something special
CONCERT REVIEW: South Holland Concerts - Alessandro Ruisi (Violin) and Dina Duisen (Piano), South Holland Centre, Spalding
The final recital in the 32nd season of South Holland Concerts featured violinist Alessandro Ruisi and pianist Dina Duisen on a night when the classics shone.
Piano and violin sonatas by Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms flowed easily from the strings of Alessandro, first violinist in the Ruisi Quartet which also features his brother Max.
But the expert piano playing of Kazakhstan-born Dina added a refreshing dimension, especially so in Beethoven’s Violin Sonata no.7 on C minor, described by Alessandro as a “schizophrenic work”.
“We always love playing that piece but it’s quite hard work and it’s got very dark moods,” Alessandro said.
“It takes time to develop a relationship and it’s about almost being able to second-guess what your partner is going to be doing, although it’s exciting when you don’t know eactly what’s going to happen but manage to catch each other.”
The concert opened though with Mozart’s Sonata for Piano and Violin in B flat major which the programme notes explained was from a set of “mature and glorious sonatas” by Mozart.
Meanwhile, Brahms’ Violin Sonata no.1 in G major, composed in 1878, was one of just three solo sonatas for violin composed by the German.
Alessandro said: “They were works that we’d done together and really enjoyed playing, kind of big, heavyweight works.
“But it’s quite nice to do a concert like this actually because we play quite a lot of contemporary music and other things.”
Alessandro and Dina captured the spirit of the piece, with “plenty of lyricism and virtuosity”, as well as their own youthful charisma in front of the South Holland Centre audience.
As David Jones, chairman of South Holland Concerts, said: “Alessandro and Dina are musicians whose individual reputations are growing fast”.
Alessandro said: “I think it’s really important that we get to travel around all over the UK, and Europe as well, to get to places that don’t have big concert halls and concerts going on every day, like London and Oxford where you are spoilt for choice.
“Usually audiences really appreciate you coming and they realise you are travellling far and we get a kick out of that, knowing that an audience really wants to be there and really wants to support you.”
Review and interview by Winston Brown
Read at the Spalding Guardian
