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Prokofiev Concerto Review in The Republican

THE REPUBLICAN (March 30, 2014) – Violinist Yevgeny Kutik brilliant with Springfield Symphony Orchestra

“Violinist Yevgeny Kutik might well be the finest guest soloist the Springfield Symphony Orchestra has featured in the past 20 years. Kutik’s account of Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto explored thrilling extremes of character and intensity, laying bare the composer’s soul at its most romantic and private one moment, at its most ironic and extroverted the next.

Kutik’s gift goes far beyond the mere mastery of his instrument. It combines deep and revealing investigation into the heart of the music he plays with passionate desire to share its stories in the most vivid terms imaginable.

In Kutik’s able hands, the soaring lyrical themes of the first movement of the Prokofiev Concerto were exquisitely tuned at dizzying altitudes – heart-breaking high C’s sung with heavenly melancholy. The scrubbing passagework of the brisker portions capered with the mischief of a maleficent imp.

The subtle Andante drew still more heartfelt playing from the young violinist – shapely, golden tones, elegantly phrased with a panache that belied his years. Kutik’s superb negotiation of the finale, with its warm, sensual Spanish flavoring (the Concerto was first performed in Madrid in 1935) and fiery finish, brought the Symphony Hall audience of 1,744 immediately to its feet, for a lengthy ovation, followed by two curtain calls. Kutik rewarded their accolades with a profound encore of the Largo from J. S. Bach’s Sonata in C for solo violin.”