A full house at the Cathedral of St Paul welcomed young virtuoso violinist Joshua Brown on August 25, 2026, for a concert of Ysaÿe, Perkinson, Dai Wei and Bartók at the Lake Champlain Music Festival, The Strad reported.
Brown opened the programme with a spectacular performance of ‘Ballade’, Ysaÿe’s Third Sonata for solo violin. He played with impeccable intonation and his approach to the many ritardandos and accelerandos in the work was deeply thoughtful, according to Leah Hollingsworth’s review for The Strad.
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- Joshua Brown delivered a spectacular opening with Ysaÿe’s Third Sonata, displaying impeccable intonation and thoughtful musicality.
- Bella Hristova gave the world premiere of Dai Wei’s demanding solo violin work, Weighless.
- Soovin Kim introduced Bartók’s Sonata for solo violin, which Brown performed with fine clarity of line.
Also impressive during the Burlington event was the cleanness of Brown’s string-crossing. This technical precision came into its own in Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s Louisiana Blues Strut: A Cakewalk, which Brown imbued with elegance and colour.
Bella Hristova then stepped forward to give the world premiere of Dai Wei’s Weighless for solo violin. Wei was a Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival Young Composer in 2018, marking a fitting return to the event.
Hristova impressively brought the work to life. That was no mean feat, given its demands, its outer sections conveying the sense of controlled frenzy in what the composer has described as a ‘marathon of endurance’.
| Performer | Composer | Piece |
|---|---|---|
| Joshua Brown | Eugène Ysaÿe | Third Sonata (‘Ballade’) |
| Joshua Brown | Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson | Louisiana Blues Strut: A Cakewalk |
| Bella Hristova | Dai Wei | Weighless (World Premiere) |
| Joshua Brown | Béla Bartók | Sonata for solo violin |
Violinologist Soovin Kim, the festival’s co-artistic director, gave a magnificent introduction to Bartók’s Sonata for solo violin. Joshua Brown then returned to the stage for a performance that displayed great understanding of its architecture.
Brown maintained a fine clarity of line throughout the Bartók piece, even if some of its more rustic elements were slightly underplayed. The afternoon performance inside the Cathedral of St Paul showcased the breadth of modern and classical solo violin repertoire.
