Vengerov Delays Fireworks

Maxim Vengerov won a whole new audience when he took over for an indisposed Itzhak Perlman at the Grammy Awards in February, playing the flashy conclusion of the very serious Shostakovich First Violin Concerto.

The intermission talk Sunday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, where Vengerov played a recital of works by Mozart, Beethoven, Prokofiev and Shostakovich, was how to pronounce his name and whether he had played live at the Grammys--or was it Memorex?

According to some of the many Russians there, it’s pronounced “Ven-GERR-off,” (his management says “VEN-ger-off”) and yes, he played live.

For his calling card recital at the Pavilion, however, the 21-year-old Siberian virtuoso offered nothing so extroverted until encore time, when he played three pieces, despite breaking an E string in the second.

Not that the rest of the music should have been restrained, by a long shot. And the opposite of extroverted is, one supposes, introverted or poetic, but that wasn’t exactly how he played either.

Vengerov commanded a pure, slender, warm tone, which he deployed within a very narrow and light dynamic range. His collaborator, pianist Itamar Golan, who was also making his first Pavilion recital appearance, outdid him in this regard, playing even more quietly and at a further remove.

It was a bit odd to hear Mozart (Sonata in B-flat, K. 378) and Beethoven (Sonata No. 5) both played with the same muted, smooth, well-oiled elegance.

Forget the injustice to Wolfgang. But elegant Beethoven?

But it became downright perverse when much of Prokofiev (Sonata No. 2) and Shostakovich (Ten Preludes from Opus 34), two vastly different composers, sounded pretty much the same.

Yes, the virtuosity was evident, and there was much to admire. But a wealth of emotional expressivity there wasn’t.

Still, many in the audience cheered and the two returned to play the Meditation from Massenet’s “Thais,” “The Round of the Goblins” by Antonio Bazzini and, after a new string was attached, the “Sabre Dance” from Khachaturian’s “Gayane.”