The following review originally appeared in THE CLICKABLE CHAMBER MUSIC NEWSLETTER FROM THE SOUTH BAY No.116:Wednesday, November 27, 2002 - Thursday, December 5, 2002.

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Jim,

The Ricci master class was incredible. Six students, I'd say ranging
from 10 to 18 years old, playing Mozart, Kreisler, Wieniawski,
Paganini, and Bach. Ricci spent about 30-40 minutes with each one
with only a ten minute break over the entire session.

He's in his early 80s and looks frail but has not lost any of his
legendary technical faculties. He spoke sparingly but he demonstrated
and played along as appropriate to bring out the best in a wonderfully
talented group of young people. He could still give a world-class
recital if he had a mind to do so. The technique these kids possess
is breathtaking but I'm sure that's no surprise to you. They
were very sensitively accompanied on the piano by Ms. Margaret Lin who
anticipated the instruction and adjusted her playing seamlessly to each
rapidly-changing piece.

As he was helping one student through the fiendish Wieniawski
Scherzo-Tarantelle, he told a story about how he'd play Heifetz's
recording of that backwards. He then proceeded to play it backwards
for us, at tempo, effortlessly.

A magnificent afternoon.

--- Ravi

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Ravi Narasimhan
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA

JHS Master Classes are supported by a generous grant from The Hennings-Fischer Foundation