Violinist Shaham Shows Little Emotion

Seriousness of purpose, depth of understanding and magnificent technique are what one has come to expect in the current crop of young violinists. At 26, Gil Shaham, the American-born, Israel-connected musician, usually has seemed to meet the requirements. His sturdy musicality and obvious pleasure in performing add to his appeal.

From Shaham’s first local recital, Sunday afternoon at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall, however, one came away oddly unsatisfied. Everything was in order, the music was delivered neatly and clearly, the mechanical aspects had been manicured thoroughly--but compared to his orchestra appearances, something was missing.

Repertory? That was part of the problem. The program, one of the big-boned Schubert sonatinas, Faure’s First Sonata, Prokofiev’s five “Melodies,” and display pieces by Richard Strauss, Copland and Bizet, may not have been exactly lightweight, but it was treated as such, and more often than not as an opportunity for show rather than a chance to explore deeply.

On this occasion, emotional communication was at a minimum. Shaham has conquered all manner of technical hurdles, flies through complicated thickets of notes fearlessly and with wonderful accuracy, but does not touch the hearts of some listeners--though the crowd shoehorned into Schoenberg Hall Auditorium on Sunday hollered mightily at cadences--through his generalized style of playing.

Correctness and sweep, if little compulsion, marked the larger works of Schubert and Faure, informed coloration marked the subsequent bon-bons, and endless, relentless mechanical achievement marked the program closer, a combination of “Carmen” fantasies by Sarasate, Waxman and Hubay, arranged by the fiddler and his current pianist, Akira Eguchi.

Through the afternoon, Eguchi proved accommodating and efficient but monochromatic.