Featured Stories – Page 121
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NewsPatient plays violin during brain surgery
Doctors operated on Dagmar Turner, 53, to remove a tumour without affecting her ability to play
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ArticlePlayers of Tomorrow: Jevgēnijs Čepoveckis
The 24-year-old Latvian violinist, winner of the 2019 Oleh Krysa International Violin Competition, reveals his strategy for dealing with competition pressure, and his biggest fear
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FeatureThe promise of Youth: Postcard from London
The 2019 Highgate International Chamber Music Festival showcased a variety of repertoire performed in partnerships established especially for the event. But, says Tom Stewart, it is the festival’s commitment to educational outreach that is particularly admirable
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Premium ❘ FeatureFrom the Archive: March 1940
Paganini researcher S. L. Salzedo gives his effusive first impressions of the violinist’s birthplace Genoa, as well as his initial thoughts on seeing ‘Il Cannone’
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DebateOpinion: In the Public Eye
The primary purpose of a musician is to be heard by an audience – yet so many performers are self-conscious about the idea of their practice being observed and judged. Perhaps it’s time to practise out in the open, writes Toby Deller
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VideoGreat Violinists of the 20th Century
Itzhak Perlman on Jascha Heifetz, Hilary Hahn on David Oistrakh, Ida Haendel on Yehudi Menuhin and more: this 2001 film by Bruno Monsaingeon pulls together archive footage and interviews with great violinists of the 20th century.
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VideoViolinist Tasmin Little performs Saint-Saëns at the Proms 1995
Violinist Tasmin Little, who has recently announced her retirement from the stage at the age of 54, performs Saint-Saëns’s Introduction et rondo capriccioso at the BBC Proms in 1995. Little is also interviewed as part of a feature on whether string players should retire from performance in The Strad’s ...
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Premium ❘ FeatureMaking a Full Quartet of Instruments: Matches Made in Heaven?
It’s both a privilege and a challenge to build a quartet of instruments that are intended to be played together from the start. Peter Somerford speaks to players and makers to discover both the pitfalls and the opportunities
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Premium ❘ FeaturePablo Casals: Boundless Expression
The legacy of Pablo Casals is alive and well in the cello playing of today – and can be traced primarily to the methods of his colleague Diran Alexanian and favourite student Maurice Eisenberg. Oskar Falta explores the Catalonian cellist’s main vibrato theories, as communicated by his two important associates
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Premium ❘ FeatureSession Report: Freedom of Choice
For Jack Liebeck, recording the Brahms and Schoenberg violin concertos has felt like a homecoming – a chance to reflect on the life of his grandfather, and to appreciate the liberties we enjoy today, as he tells Harry White
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Premium ❘ FeatureWilliam C. Honeyman: The People’s Violin Man
During the 19th century there was an upsurge of interest in violin playing in Britain. At its centre, writes Kevin MacDonald, was the Scottish violinist and writer William C. Honeyman – purveyor of string secrets to the masses and perhaps the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes
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Premium ❘ FeatureSession Report: Violinist Johan Dalene makes his recording debut
For his debut album as an exclusive BIS artist, Johan Dalene – teenage winner of last year’s Carl Nielsen International Competition – has not shied away from ambitious and much-loved repertoire. He and producer Jens U. Braun recall the recording process
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Premium ❘ FeatureKaren Tuttle: The Violists’ Champion
Violists, particularly in the US, regard Karen Tuttle as a pioneer of pedagogy, tirelessly committed to improving the playing freedom of her students. As this month marks the 100th anniversary of her birth, Carlos María Solare pays tribute to her career, teaching methods and formidable strength of character
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FocusViolinist Yehudi Menuhin's first appearance in The Strad, aged 10
We republish a snippet introducing the prodigy to Strad readers in 1926
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FeatureSentimental Work: Jean-Luc Ponty
The French jazz violinist–composer has recorded his 1976 piece ‘Renaissance’ three times – but it’s the original version that remains close to his heart
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FocusI know that I know nothing: Tomás Cotik concludes his series on Bach
Ahead of his 2020 album release of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas, the violinist concludes his blog series, in which he discusses the contradictions between the opposing trends and traditions in Bach interpretation, and his personal solutions to them.
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VideoLawrence Power plays a Brexit Polka
A timely little polka from British violist Lawrence Power. Listen carefully to hear all 28 (current) European national anthems.
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VideoYehudi Menuhin School student on a violin once played in Auschwitz
In this video, 18-year-old Kingsley Lin, who is currently studying at the Yehudi Menuhin School, performs on a violin once played by Rosa Levinsky in the Auschwitz Women’s Orchestra. Levinsky spent the last five months of the war in Bergen-Belsen, and on being released in 1945, was transferred to a ...
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FocusJerry Horner on talent and practice
In February last year, former Fine Arts Quartet violist Jerry Horner died at the age of 83. Here, his past student James Dickenson shares part of his philosophy of learning, drawing on interviews with Margaret Clements, his widow
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ArticlePremiere of the month: Shake, rattle and roll
French composer Jérôme Combier and cellist Eric-Maria Couturier take a solo journey into the underworld
