Maxim Vengerov is the biggest name to visit New Zealand in 2024. A global superstar since his early 20s, Vengerov plays Sibelius with Auckland Philharmonia on 22 August. David Larsen reminisces about a special Vengerov moment.
Maxim Vengerov was 21 years old the first time I saw him perform, ancient for a violin prodigy; but it had become clear well before he left his teens that he was not just another young shooting star. Twenty-seven years later, I remember two things especially about that concert. First, the character of his sound.
Of the great violinists I had heard live before then, Shlomo Mintz, in an all-Vivaldi programme, had called the brightest, keenest sound out of his fiddle. Each note was a gleaming ice dagger; I’d thought I knew what clarity sounded like, and he taught me better.
Pinchas Zukerman taught me about big sound. It wasn’t that he was necessarily loud, though when he reached for fortissimo he could stun a deaf person at 50 paces. It was the way his playing enveloped you, even when he dropped to a whisper. He obliterated distance. It was like being cradled in a giant’s fist.