Itzhak Perlman review – a packed-out love-in celebrates the violinist's 70th

Barbican, London
Perlman was breathtaking in Stravinsky and Franck, and no matter that his tone slipped elsewhere – his audience remains devoted

Itzhak Perlman has had a five-star career, made five-star recordings and remains indelibly a five-star presence on the concert platform. This Barbican recital, nominally to mark Perlman’s 70th birthday last August, was a rare chance to pay homage to indisputably one of the great violinists.

What it was not, though, was a five-star recital. And nor, these days, is it true to describe Perlman, as the concert programme did, as “undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin”. For all the enduring ease of his playing, there was no mistaking that the unequalled technique of his prime has gone down a notch, nor that his tone is less easily summoned than it once was. Even in the eight additional pieces that he played after his published programme – encores are always a highlight of a Perlman evening – there was the sense of a devoted audience willing the artist to play better than he could.

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