Violinist of Virtuosity

Ulf Hoelscher's performance of Bach's Partita in D minor for Solo Violin at the start of his Wigmore Hall recital last night marked him out immediately as a violinist of exceptional talent and achievement.

His tone was rich, his intonation excellent, even throughout the most difficult of double-stops and chords. I found some of his tempi a bit wayward, especially in the last piece - the Ciaccona - where he tended to move onward at the expense of perfect equilibrium. But the general impression was one of outstanding virtuosity.

This impression was amply confirmed in the remaining works, all for unaccompanied violin. Bartok's Sonata (1944) was delivered with an exuberance which strayed occasionally into downright rough vehemence.

And he capped his programme - purely from the point of view of virtuosity, that is - by a marvellously controlled display, including every trick in the book, during Paganini's "Variations on a Theme by Paisello."