Visiting 10-year-old violinist Georgiana “Georgie” Dawson offered Sedona residents a free concert at the Sedona Public Library on Saturday, Nov. 9, and if you weren’t there, you should have been.
Dawson, who is based in Houston, Tex., visits her grandparents in Sedona in the fall, and last year had the idea of putting on an intimate chamber performance at the library to show her appreciation for the Sedona community. She was joined on this occasion by pianist Luke Arnold, a recent graduate of Rice University, who has been working with Dawson as her accompanist since her previous appearance.
While Dawson’s concert last year had featured a holiday theme, this year’s show treated library patrons to a display of virtuoso variety and a couple of popular hits as well. Dawson opened with Niccolo Paganini’s “Cantabile in D Major,” one of the legendary violinist’s light-hearted diversions, a piece that is at once homey and sophisticated with some elaborate surprises thrown in. It was immediately noticeable that Dawson was playing with more feeling and engagement with the music than she had a year ago. She displayed excellent steadiness of tone, albeit with an occasional hesitation needed to maintain control, as well as some very capable glissandos.
Next on the menu was the scherzo from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Souvenir d’un lieu cher,” or “Souvenir of a beloved place” — how apropos. This one was naturally vivacious and chatty, and Dawson easily gave it some added character. There were no tempo issues here, in spite of the challenging task posed by the staccato technique the movement demands. She played the melting middle section to especially good effect, while the dynamic A section and reprise offered a nice opportunity to see her and Arnold working smoothly together.
Dawson then flew solo with the gavotte and rondeau from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partita No. 3, which she kept light, elegant and danceable without a hint of strain. Her technique was so clear that it left the audience free to marvel at some of the intricacies that spilled so incessantly out of Bach’s over-teeming brain, as well as the capacity of the violinist to master the piece entirely from memory. It is worth noting that Dawson did not use a piece of written music throughout the entire concert.
After the Bach, it was back to Bruch — Max Bruch, of course, whose Violin Concerto No. 1 has been the darling of virtuosi since its first appearance, to the chagrin of the composer, who felt his other violin concertos were being neglected. Dawson and Arnold had selected the first movement as the most substantial portion of the afternoon’s concert. It offered a bigger role for the piano than the previous choices, with Arnold supplying subtle left-handed scintillations and powerful climaxes. But Dawson showed she had ample power on tap as well, and speed to match, and used them both to deliver a quite enticing Bruch — and boy, can she trill. Her demeanor throughout was also impeccable, already professional and without self-consciousness.
“So, to turn this into a holiday concert, here’s ‘Linus and Lucy,’” Arnold jested before dashing off the familiar seasonal melody from “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” He remarked that the piece was part of his own musical lineage in a sense, as his former piano teacher had studied with Peanuts composer and jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi. Finally, Dawson rang down the curtain on the afternoon and earned a standing ovation with a setting of “Over the Rainbow” from “The Wizard of Oz,” vocalizing the lyrics touchingly with the warmth of her instrument.
Carolyn Fisher, who serves on the boards of both SPL and the Sedona Symphony, commented afterward that Dawson had gotten the audience nicely warmed up for the Symphony’s concert this coming weekend, which will feature the talents of Chamber Music Sedona director Nick Canellakis on cello, and urged the audience to plan on attending the show.
