Review of the recital at the Fletcher Opera Theater in Raleigh, NC

For its local debut, the violin and piano duo of Tomás Cotik and Tao Lin offered a program consisting of fairly traditional concert music in the first half, capped by dazzling fireworks in the second. Elegance and grace were hallmarks of the first half...It dazzled here, with Cotik's rich and warm violin sound emanating from his 2000 Mark de Sterke instrument, and Lin's comparably spirited work at the Bösendorfer 280 The big work in the first half was Schubert's Fantasy in C, D.934, that master's largest composition for violin and piano and one that can (and often does) separate sheep from goats in the recital business. Listeners can have had no cause for complaints on this occasion, for this was heard in an elegant and refined rendition that at once shed new light on the score's many beauties and its varied emotional depth as well. For some of us, it's hard to imagine life without Schubert, the composer of pieces of heavenly length (a term often applied to the 'Great' C Major Symphony); this was a good example of why that is so. Part two was altogether lighter.....splendid playing..... yet more dazzle. John W. Lambert READ MORE