The comparativist

Violinist Jack Callaghan and pianist Jordi Bitlloch graced Christ Church yesterday, as part of the Midweek Music Summer Programme. They played Sergei Prokofiev’s «Violin Sonata N.º 2 in D major» (Op. 94a), Bach’s «Violin Sonata N.º 1 in G minor» (BWV 1001), and Brahms’ «Violin Concerto in D major» (Op. 77) to a crowd of around 100 musical enthusiasts. Brahms’ charismatic piece seems to have been the best received. It charismatically and slowly grows to a rather melancholic finale, to which one is drawn because of the emotional commitment already developed by the more cheerful beginning. It is rather like Marcos Ordóñez Divi said about Shakespeare: first he makes you laugh and then he makes you cry. This «Violin Concerto» introduces itself with such light, capricious joy that when it turns sour towards the end you can’t help but empathise with what is, by then, a new friend. Violinist Callaghan did say in his introduction that this was a piece he enjoyed playing, and it showed: hi...