When Tasmin Little plays her violin, even hippopotami listen. She tells us so in one of the introductory chats appended to her first music release in four years, a solo recital temptingly called The Naked Violin. This is not a CD; you won’t find it in the shops. It can only be found online, at www.tasminlittle.net, where in an act of extraordinary altruism for an artist with a living to make it can be downloaded absolutely free. Not even Radiohead has matched that.

Little’s aim is to reach audiences who would normally experience barriers in buying a classical CD or attending a classical concert. The message is: “Listen and see. There’s nothing to be afraid of.” Nothing for aficionados to be afraid of, either. In terms of minutes of music, there may not be that many on offer here. The total is 35 minutes, compromising 19 minutes of Bach’s Partita No 3; seven minutes of Ysaye’s third sonata, Ballade; and nearly nine minutes of Paul Patterson - the Luslawice Variations of 1984. But in terms of quality, no listener is getting short shrift.

Little’s playing, recorded earlier this month one grey Saturday, combines red-blooded passion with pinprick precision: qualities that make her Bach especially riveting as the semiquavers fly by. Little never overdecorates Bach; whether moving fast or slow, she lets the notes sing. No wonder that hippopotamus stopped to listen as she performed one day from a boat near the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.

The Bach is played on her 1757 Guadagnini violin, a mellow beauty. For the two other, showier works, she switches to the treble brilliance of the “Regent” Stradivarius, on loan from the Royal Academy of Music. Repertoire and instrument are well chosen.

The exuberant Patterson in particular demands a quick-change artist, capable of leaping through many different violin techniques without ever dwindling into a dry academic textbook. The turbulent romantic dance of the Ysaye needs a player who can keep the beat but still walk on the wild side, a player who’s never afraid.

That’s certainly Little. She may not literally be a naked violinist. But she plays with a generous, open heart; and in a field crowded with hyped-up virtuosi that’s a quality we all need to download.

(www.tasminlittle.net)

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