Virtuoso Violinist Friedman Plays in Heifetz-Like Recital

Every 13 or 14 years, it seems, Erick Friedman, the celebrated American virtuosoviolinist, returns to Southern California. He did so, again, Sunday afternoon, when he appeared on the new Jascha Heifetz Society series at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa.

Friedman’s connections with the legendary Heifetz are firm: As a teenager, he studied for three years with the late violinist and was even offered an opportunity to be Heifetz’s teaching assistant (which he turned down).

The New Jersey-born musician, now 61, mentioned some of these connections during his recital with pianist Ralph Alberstrom in commodious Munson Chapel. The program was conventional, pleasurable and, as Friedman pointed out, Heifetz-like: two serious sonatas, followed by five short showpieces.

The playing, too, turned out to be straightforward and direct. With abundant technique, considerable ease and an unforced musicality, Friedman communicates his uncomplicated view of each composer’s vision. His style is consistently undevious and steadily literal; he plays the notes reliably, and with a handsome sound.

One came away, then, without many insights or revelations into Grieg’s Second, or Faure’s A-major Sonatas; one heard merely solid and unsubtle run-throughs of good music. The showpieces did their job well, too.

Particularly enjoyable were Sarasate’s neglected Introduction and Tarantelle and Saint-Saens’ still-irresistible Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, which Friedman and Alberstrom imbued with a musical heat and impetuosity sometimes missing in the rest of the afternoon.