"At the age of 18,
Wendy Law has won practically every cello prize in the book, from the Boston Symphony
Orchestra Young Artist Competition to the Harvard Achievement Award. She has played cello
with Yo-Yo Ma, has her own string quartet, and performs with some of the world's great
orchestras.
Judging from Ms. Law's recital last week, she inevitable is going to rise up to
that rare pantheon of great cellists. It was a challenging recital, at times a thrilling
one. But at all points, Ms. Law was in dashing control of her instrument.
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[The] Prokofiev Sonata showed an honest technical mastery which opened gravity and
eloquence. The naïve second movement tune was played with gracious simplicity…the promise
of the first half reached an apotheosis of kinds with the marvelous Hindemith 1922 Sonata
for Solo Cello. Unlike the later rather austere Hindemith, this piece is interesting,
accessible, and in its Bach-like toccata, a fascinating experiment in tone and structure.
Ms. Law played the piece as if born to its complexities. Never straining for
effect, she
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let the music's terse fluency speak for
itself. As if playing a Bach cello suite, she allowed the short dancing movements to speak
for themselves. She did not have to emphasize the folkish second movement or the
toccata-like finale. The cello did the work.
Predictable accomplished accompanist Nancy Loo was easily Ms. Law's equal in
the two 19th-century works, by Schumann and Chopin. And in the Ravel encore, Ms. Law showed
a sensitivity almost unheard of for such a splendid young artist."
-Harry Rolnick
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