All Featured Stories articles – Page 88
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Premium ❘ ArticleSoundpost: Letters to the Editor March 2021
A selection of letters The Strad receives each month from its readers around the world: March 2021 issue
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Premium ❘ FeatureFrom the Archive: March 1941
After literary siblings Edith, Osbert, and Sacheverell Sitwell win £350 each in a libel case, The Strad muses on what the verdict might mean for arts critics in the future
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Premium ❘ FeatureMasterclass: Simon Standage on Bach’s Violin Sonata in E major part 2
British violinist Simon Standage looks at the Adagio ma non tanto and ‘firework’ finale, in the second of two articles exploring this 18th-century work for violin and harpsichord
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Premium ❘ FeatureOrchestral Tricks: in plain sight
Gerald Elias has spent many years as a professional orchestral violinist – in the Boston SO and Utah Symphony – and has been music director of Salt Lake City’s Vivaldi by Candlelight chamber orchestra since 2004. Here he explores some of the universal challenges faced by orchestral string players which ...
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Premium ❘ FeatureSession Report: in good time
The Engegård Quartet’s third album of Mozart string quartets was all about timing – from allowing enough space between learning and recording the works, to faithfully honouring the composer’s tempo markings – as Andrew Mellor discovers
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VideoAlexander Hersh plays the serenade from Debussy’s Sonata for Piano and Cello
In this video - the second in a series fusing music and narrative - cellist Alexander Hersh plays the serenade from Debussy’s Cello and Piano with pianist Victor Asunción. Hersh says: ‘With the onset of a worldwide pandemic, I’ve come to regard beautifully conceived and filmed classical music videos as ...
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FocusRefashioning great works of art
To tie in with the release of their new jazz and rock-infused take on Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, Ben Russell and Brandon Ridenour of the songwriting collective, Founders, explain why no work should be off limits to rearrange
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Premium ❘ FeatureFrancesca Dego: chance of a lifetime
For Italian violinist Francesca Dego, the opportunity to perform and record on Paganini’s ‘Il Cannone’ Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ of 1743 was a dream come true. She shares with Tom Stewart her experiences with the rarely accessed instrument – which came complete with security guards and its own dressing room
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VideoCellist Nicholas Gold plays The Swan in the snow
In the video, the American cellist Nicholas Gold plays Saint-Saëns’s The Swan in the snow. Gold says: ‘my friend convinced me to go outside and play the cello in this rare snow storm in Nashville, TN. You can obviously hear the cello pegs fall and I said “peg slip” ...
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Blogs‘You can see me, but I can’t see you!’ – Rachel Smith on performing in front of cameras, without a live audience
To tie in with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s 6-week series of streamed lunchtime concerts, Rachel Smith, one of the orchestra’s violinists, reflects on the experience of performing chamber music in the time of Covid
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VideoDebussy’s Sonata for Cello and Piano: a film fusing music and narrative
In this video - the first in a series fusing music and narrative - cellist Alexander Hersh plays Debussy’s Cello and Piano with pianist Victor Asunción. Hersh says: ‘With the onset of a worldwide pandemic, I’ve come to regard beautifully conceived and filmed classical music videos as an existential imperative ...
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FocusHow to play cantabile on the cello
Ahead of her new album release, the French-Swiss cellist Ophélie Gaillard explains how she simulates the vocal expressiveness of a melodic line on the cello
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VideoViktoria Mullova plays Mozart in 1989
In this video the Soviet-born violinist Viktoria Mullova plays Mozart’s Violin Concerto No 5 with Das Württembergische Kammerorchester Heilbronn under Jörg Faerber in 1989 - just a few years after escaping from the Soviet Union at the age of 23. Watch: Viktoria Mullova plerforms Bach Violin Concertos Read: ...
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FocusTai Murray on expanding the classical repertoire
The violinist stresses the importance of profiling contemporary composers of every visual colour and every invisible one
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NewsFinalists announced in Jascha Heifetz violin competition
A jury chaired by Gidon Kremer will choose the winner at the finals in May
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NewsWigmore Hall unveils programme of 40 live-streamed concerts
More than 200 players will have the chance to play at the London venue over the next six weeks
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Focus‘Balancing violin and harpsichord requires a stretch of the imagination’ - Simon Standage
Early music expert Simon Standage discusses historically informed performance, interpretation and balancing violin and harpsichord in Bach’s Violin Sonata in E major
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VideoViolinist Anne-Sophie Mutter performs Mendelssohn aged 14
Anne-Sophie Mutter performs Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the Munich Philharmonic conducted by Gerd Albrecht in 1978 at the age of 14. Read: Anne-Sophie Mutter on Herbert von Karajan and John Williams Read: ‘Extremes of constant vibrato or none at all do not solve musical problems,’ says violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter
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VideoDan Flanagan plays Shadow Breaking: a piece inspired by a painting
In this video, violinist Dan Flangan plays Shadow Breaking, a new piece by Nathaniel Stookey. It’s part of a lockdown project for Flanagan, who has commissioned 16 composers to write solo violin pieces for him, each inspired by a painting in the violinist’s collection. The composers include Libby Larsen, ...
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Focus3 questions for Liu Ming - new concertmaster of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra
At just 25-years-old, Liu Ming is the orchestra’s second youngest concertmaster in its 141 year history. Here she shares a tip for being a good orchestral leader, and describes how the pandemic affected her approach to the role
