The first movement's imitations came alive and the pizzicato second movement was coloured with delicate charm.
The song was difficult to perform, with complicated pizzicato parts and arpeggios, requiring swift and flexible movements.
His playing is as imaginative and unpredictable as the source texts, flitting from bowed lyricism to mysterious pizzicato to downright scary scraping.
A section for pizzicato strings suspended over creepy melodic lines for piano and Celesta seemed to turn the orchestra into a giant, threatening insect.
For example, in the A-minor concerto, the contrasting use of pizzicato versus arco with the same thematic material is a happy surprise, guaranteed to raise a smile.
Many of the most demanding techniques of the present-day violinist are associated primarily with him, including ‘ricochet’ bowing, left-hand pizzicato , and double-stop harmonics.
The slow movement ‘Aria,’ finely adumbrated by pizzicato bass at the scherzo's end, is a grave conversation among the string sections and their principals.
Their willingness to instill the piece with spirit is the great strength of the performance, though it sometimes leads them to overpluck the pizzicato of the second movement.
But elasticity was put to quite different use at the start of the rondo: in an exaggeration of tempo di menuetto, the strings' pizzicato sounded rather like the snapping of rubber bands.
‘Sam’ and ‘Two Rocks and a Cup of Water’ are magical pizzicato lullabies, intricate and tender, but with a razor-edged sweetness that manages not to be sentimental.
