'Hats off, gentlemen, a genius' said Robert Schumann of Chopin's Variations on 'La ci darem la mano' from Mozart's Don Giovanni. I re-echo this thought on hearing Yevgeny Kutik play tonight in Lenox Massachusetts.I have been listening to Yevgeny's performances for about nine years now and he has gone from an extremely talented teen-ager to a 26 year old genius of the violin. His playing goes far beyond his amazing technique, his inate musicality, and his exquisite sense of pitch; it emanates from the soil of his native Minsk, comes up through his young body and his soul, and enters the mundane world, turning it into a place of infinite passion and beauty. He is damn good!
Tonight's concert at Kimball Farms in Lenox was a dress rehearsal for the concert he will play on Tuesday, April 10th at the New Center for Arts and Culture in Boston. The program will be narrated by well-known classical radio personality, Martin Bookspan. It will reflect the Jewish influences on American music.
In tonight's concert Yevgeny, with his brilliant pianist, Timothy Bozarth,began with the Brahms Sonata #3 in D minor, Op. 108. This gorgeous work was played by both performers with great warmth and excitement. It was followed by Baal Shem of Ernst Bloch, Maurice Ravel's Kadish, Max Bruch's Kol Nidre, and George Gershwin's 'It ain't necessarily so'. Afterwards I told Yevgeny that in this last piece he sounded like the great jazz violinist Stéphane Grapelli. As an encore, he dashed off the fiendishly difficult last movement of the Shostakovich Concerto. This is a stunning player!
I have been listening to violinists for the past seventy years, at least, not counting my grandfather, who played square dance music on the fiddle. Heifetz, Morinni, Menuhin, I heard them all. Yevgeny fits right into this category of genius performers.
We had dinner together in Boston last Monday evening. I was in town for the GLAD vs DOMA trial which was on the 4th. We had time to talk about the state of classical music in general and Yevgeny's career in particular. His busy spring includes concerts in Boston, Poland, Maine, Weston, MA, Atlanta, GA, Rostock, Germany, The Lobkowicz Palace in Prague Castle, Washington, DC, Sandisfield, MA (a benefit for the Ferris Burtis Music Foundation) Nantucket, and Germany again.
I think that it's about time that a college or university snapped this young man up as Artist in Residence while they can still get him!
Yevgeny's exciting CD 'Sounds of Defiance' may be ordered at www.marquisclassics.com If you haven't heard it, you should!
I have been so happy, as Director of the Ferris Burtis Music Foundation, to be able to help Yevgeny in his education and career in whatever way I can. I know that John Ferris would be as delighted as I am that we began this relationship nine years ago and continue to follow this brilliant artist as he heads for the stars!
