This master class was held as usual in the Faulkner Recital Hall, a very intimate setting.
The first piece was the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major played very well by someone Gao, a first year student. Frederik of the gelled hair gave her feedback, focusing on skipping the vibrato and putting more weight on the bow. The idea was to find more of the line of the music. He also worked on timing in the cadenza section. It was a race against the clock, as the movement is fairly long. I’m not sure how well all this came across.
The second piece was by the informally named “Oreo Quartet” with Brian, David, Eddie Pyun and a young woman. They played Beethoven’s String Quartet in E Flat Major, the “Harp Quartet”. Most of the critique was led again by Frederik the violinist. He felt that they should play faster. In a telling sequence, he said they were spending too much time looking around at each other. He had them play a sequence with their eyes closed right from the start (using breathing as the cue). It was remarkably effective, as the quartet played even better.
The third piece was Beethoven’s 4th Sonata for Cello by Richard Lu. In this case, cellist Fredrik Sjölin let the critique. He brought out his cello, which was effective to compare playing, but his suggestions were a bit more difficult to understand. I chuckled when he plucked a string by mistake and said that he should try to avoid the “Robin Hood” which he explained was the twang of a string like shooting an arrow.