Violinist Stefan Milenkovich’s Legato Smooths Out the Edges

The 24-year-old Belgrade-born violinist Stefan Milenkovich has remarkable control over his instrument and is blessed with superb intonation and what seems like a limitless capacity for sustaining a big, broad, smooth line. It was the idea of legato that dominated his recital with American pianist Adam Neiman at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall Sunday--though with more compelling results in short pieces than in large-scale sonatas.

Granted, the Prokofiev Sonata No. 2 in D is a relatively nonabrasive work for this composer, but it could have used more snapping rhythm and firewater than it received. The Saint-Sans Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, with its multi-sectioned two-movement structure, was better able to accommodate Milenkovich’s ripe, thick tone, though shorter ties between the notes were sanded away in favor of those endless legatos.

But Milenkovich was able to focus his command of the line and produce an intense performance of Bloch’s Hebraic-flavored “Nigun” (from “Baal Shem”), with Neiman’s bald, brusque tone also matching the mood of the piece. Milenkovich’s broadly paced conception was effective in Tchaikovsky’s “Meditation,” Opus 42, No. 1--and in the context of this program, Paganini’s “Moto Perpetuo” seemed like a clever echo of the last movement of the Saint-Sans. Following Paganini’s “I Palpiti,” Milenkovich and Neiman offered transcriptions of Dinicu’s “Hora Staccato,” a Dvorak Slavonic Dance, and Debussy’s “Beau Soir” as encores.