Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times
“Disruption” — in the hyped jargon of Silicon Valley, big business and politics — can too easily stand for deception, the overthrowing of expectations to get your way or to justify for messing up. Even when the intention is good, the very nature of having intention means revelation is unlikely.
This is the opposite of when artists learn from accidents. Revelation comes from not being ready, and that is what happened with a couple of fumbled page turns during the first half of a killer program given by two high-powered stars, violinist Leonidas Kavakos and pianist Yuja Wang at the Granada Theatre on Monday night.
This happened during a performance of Schubert’s Fantasie in C Major, which ended the first half of the program and would not be worth reporting had it not led to remarkable results.
The Fantasie began in appropriately ethereal realms. Wang made otherworldly tremolos and trills glitter like stars in the night sky. Kavakos’ tone has the character of striking high-grade silver sinew, ever beautiful, graceful and unbreakable, the ideal sound for Schubertean lyricism.
Late Schubert at his most heavenly, the Fantasie’s central variations section lifts the tragedy of a 30-year-old genius already suffering the distresses of syphilis, which would kill him a year later, to a melancholy cheer. Schubert ends by giving virtuosos the gift of high spirits …
Image: Michael Owen Baker / Los Angeles Times