RANDALL GOOSBY

Given the original title of “Sonata for Piano and Violin,” Brahms intended for the piano part to be held in equal regard to the violin. Both performers were undoubtedly up to the challenge, as neither could put a finger wrong, resulting in applause between each movement, a gesture that both Goosby and Wang accepted and encouraged for the remainder of the performance. … [I]t is always a joy to hear [Florence Price’s] work, especially when performed with great care and finesse, as Goosby has done. Both Fantasies yet again require both technical and musical perfection ….

[Randall Goosby’s] sense of impish playfulness was evident throughout the concerto, all good-humoured and at peace with the world. … [H]is playing was never short on contrasts. The central Adagio offered a solo line of finely spun silk and the closing sequence intensified the essential serenity, like being mesmerised by the gentle flickering of a candle in the darkness of night. … [I]n the final Rondo where Mozart suddenly plunges into a short pavane-like episode in G minor … the overlapping of the inner parts played pizzicato demonstrated perfect adroitness. In Goosby’s encore, the Louisiana Blues Strut by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, the sunny smiles and sense of fun were out in full force.

The 27-year-old violinist Randall Goosby, making his Mostly Mozart debut, was luminous in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto — his tone luscious, elegant and sweet without being syrupy. His unforced ease and alluringly relaxed vibrato gave his legato suppleness, and his trill was an act of gracefulness instead of athleticism. When the orchestra re-entered with the first movement’s main theme, it felt like a catharsis of the joy Goosby had cultivated.