Festival Review

Robert Matthew-Walker, November - December 2005, Musical Opinion, page 54.

The Fourth Virtuoso Violin Festival.

When Rimma Sushanskaya went back-stage after a David Oistrakh concert to introduce herself she was astonished when he said "I know who you are".  It appears that some time earlier , while she was auditioning in Moscow, Oistrakh had heard her play and had been impressed.  She was even more  astonished when, encouraged by his recognition, she said she would love to study with him.  "Yes" he said "with pleasure".  And so she became David Oistrakh's last pupil, having also won first prize at the Prague International Violin Competition, part of the 1972 Prague Spring Festival, as well as being awarded the Ysaÿe medal.

But she decided to emigrate in 1976, with the result that she became a refusenik for a whole year; eventually , she managed to leave the Soviet Union for the United States in 1977.  This was due in no small part to president Jimmy Carter's Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, who raised her plight with Leonid Brezhnev personally, having been lobbied by those members of her family who had already emigrated to America, and by other musicians.

And so Dr Rimma Sushanskaya found herself in New York City having to build a career in the West.  Many concert and recital appearances with orchestras throughout the East and West coasts of the USA followed her debut at the Soviet Émigré Festival at Carnegie Hall in 1978.  As a

Sadly Eric died in 1998.  In an attempt to overcome her grief, Rimma threw herself into a profound study of Bach's music, which Eric loved.  In this, she was helped by the legendary Rosalyn Tureck; Rimma had first heard Tureck in New York in 1983, and they eventually met in Oxford in 1998.  From this period came the idea of founding the annual Virtuoso Violin Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon, centred upon the music of Bach and Paganini, yet not exclusively, in which students from all over the world come together for intensive study.  Rosalyn Tureck was the first Patron of the Festival, but fate dealt Rimma another blow.  Walking down the sidewalk on Broadway in 2003, just a few days after Tureck's death, she tripped and fell, badly damaging her right arm:  now, playing the violin in concert was virtually out of the question.  While she was recovering, and continuing to teach, the Virtuoso Violin Festival continued to grow.  Readers may recall my preview in July/August issue of this year's Festival, which took place between 31 July and 9 August, culminating in a recital on 6th August in the Shakespeare Institute by Festival participants and an orchestral concert two days later conducted by Dr Rimma Sushanskaya at Holy Trinity Church, Shakespeare's burial place.

Both events were of such a high standard as to rekindle one's belief in the regenerative power of great music, and the passing of the torch to the younger generation.  Every one of the violinists who took part were gifted. In the recitals first half, the eight year old Lev Vengerov, now resident with his family in Dublin, played a delightful Russian Lullaby, and the fifteen year-old Vladamir Golovatyy played the first movement of Mendelssohn's Concerto outstandingly well.  The seventeen year-old Leonid Nikishin was also deeply impressive in Wienawski's very difficult Fantasia on Gounod's Faust, delivered with great aplomb.  In the second half the 15-year-old British violinist John Garner played unaccompanied Bach and Ysaÿe excellently, and Anna Ovsyanikova, a recent graduate of St. Petersburg Conservatoire, having been awarded the Gold Medal, ended with a flawless account of Chausson's Poeme.

To mention these five players is not to detract from the six other fine young artists who also took part in the recital:  Anna Pring, Viktoria Skornyakova, Vanessa Kinman, Victoria Stephenson, Rozalia Oushkanova and Charlotte Miles.  Sophie Matter was indisposed for the recital but happily recovered to take part in the orchestral concert.

Mozart's Eine Kliene Nachtmusik and Britten's Simple Symphony comprised the first half with quite outstanding performances of great musical and technical merit under Dr Sushanskaya's baton.  Anna Ovsyanikova began part 2 with two unaccompanied Paganini Caprices, and Bach's Double Violin Concerto  ended the programme, but with six soloists!, two of the participants for each of the work's three movements.  Dr Sushanskaya herself partnered Anna Ovsyanikova in the finale. There was playing of a very high degree throughout , the finale being encored as the large audience would not let any of the musicians go . Such tremendously successful and very moving music- making in both recital and concert ended this remarkable Festival.