Perlman draws appreciative ‘oohs’ from audience

Violinist Itzhak Perlman is the type of performer who receives a standing ovation for walking onto a stage. Who inspires an audience member to whisper to a stranger: "He is marvelous." Who can cause toe tapping or tears just by the way he moves his bow across his Stradivarius.

He did all that, and more, Wednesday in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas' sold-out Ham Hall.

Even though technical issues kept the evening from being perfect, the repeated, lengthy applause showed the audience had few complaints.

Accompanying Perlman was Rohan de Silva, a native of Sri Lanka and Juilliard graduate.

The evening included three sonatas and five shorter works.

The biggest negative of the evening was the sound. There were times the piano overshadowed the violin, even though the piano's lid was almost entirely closed. Whether it was acoustics, de Silva's involved playing, or something else, it detracted. And atypical lighting -- with no spotlights and almost as much light on the audience as on the stage -- made it more difficult to see Perlman's expressions and the finest points of his playing.

Perlman began the evening with Bach's "Sonata No. 3 in E Major." The more than 20-minute piece was good, just not heart-stopping. Still, the rich work progressed in fine fashion to its light, bright conclusion.

It was after this that Perlman started to sizzle. Strauss' "Sonata for Violin and Piano in E flat major, Op. 18" is strong and substantive, with layers of themes, dynamic mood shifts and a striking close. Perlman and de Silva took their instruments off on a great adventure in the second movement. The concluding passages, by contrast, became luxuriant and encompassing. Perlman certainly knows this piece well. Yet he played as if he had just realized new emotion and meaning in the work and had to share.

With Poulenc's "Sonata for Violin and Piano, FP119," Perlman captured the elegiac tone, showing mastery as he effortlessly went from picking notes out on the violin, to his bow, and back through rapid-fire passages. In the swelling conclusion, it seemed he might pull the strings from his violin as he plucked with such fervor, only to return to the bow for the stark, discordant conclusion.

One quick, bright offering was "Troika," composed by Winternitz, arranged by Kreisler. "This was inspired by a poem," Perlman said, and went on to read a few words of the composition before adding, "Forget the poem. The music's pretty good." Almost casually, he launched into the most frantic piece of the evening, tossing off impossibly quick bow work to appreciative "oohs" from the crowd.

A somber theme from "Schindler's List" followed -- Perlman played the solos for the film -- and the evening concluded with Bazzini's "Dance of the Goblins." A dizzying tour de force for Perlman, at one point he was playing such high notes on his violin it seemed he would run out of space on the strings. This was another "he can't do that -- but he is" moment, sparking another standing ovation and more thunderous applause.