All Features articles – Page 24
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Premium ❘ FeatureGrowing pains
Violinist and Ohio State University professor of music education Bob Gillespie has taught countless teenage string players. Here he explores adolescent character traits, and shares with teachers his valuable guide to dealing with adolescent moods and logic
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Premium ❘ FeatureOn the borders of greatness
Giuseppe Sgarbi’s instruments have a unique vibrancy and individuality, while still respecting the traditional Cremonese forms. Lorenzo Frignani examines his career, as well as that of his son Antonio, to suggest why his work deserves more recognition than it has in the past
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Premium ❘ FeatureThe Score: Friend or Foe?
The multiple editions of a piece can confuse a musician. Should we always work from an urtext edition in an attempt to access the composer’s most authentic voice? Or can edited versions with interpretative markings be helpful? Cellist Pedro de Alcantara guides us through this minefield
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Premium ❘ FeatureLights, Camera, Action
As the founder of Music in Vision, Kathleen Ross has built a business from supplying professional musicians for on-camera roles. Introducing instrumentalists to the world of film and TV can be challenging, but, she writes, ensuring that musicians in background parts are convincingly portrayed is well worth the effort
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Premium ❘ FeatureA Treasury of Sound
The Royal Danish Orchestra has been adding to its collection of fine stringed instruments for centuries – but there is revolution as well as evolution behind its distinctive string sound, which is unmistakable whatever the repertoire and whoever the conductor, finds Andrew Mellor
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Premium ❘ FeatureInto the Light
Why it took nearly a century for an important, beautiful concert piece for cello and piano from a 20th-century female composer to be published is incomprehensible. We can certainly blame contemporaneous sexist attitudes towards women, but was there also something more personal here?
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Premium ❘ FeatureLike Fathers, Like Sons
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Émile Auguste Ouchard, as well as the 40th of his son Bernard – both regarded as among the 20th century’s finest bow makers. Thomas Martin, Andrew McGill, Martin Lawrence and George Martin examine the legacy of the Ouchard dynasty, particularly ...
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Premium ❘ FeatureA Conductor’s Tale
Music director Manfred Honeck has brought a distinctly European flavour to the Pittsburgh Symphony. Gavin Dixon spoke to him at his summer festival in Wolfegg, Germany, as he prepared to embark on a tour of Europe with his Pittsburgh forces – and discovered how his time as a violist in ...
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Premium ❘ FeatureTurning Over a New Leaf
Since her professional debut almost 30 years ago, Sarah Chang has maintained a glittering solo performing and recording career. But, as she tells Charlotte Smith, her more recent desire to take on ‘passion projects’ has led to fulfilling chamber and contemporary collaborations
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Premium ❘ FeatureBright Young Things
The New York String Orchestra Seminar, one of America’s first orchestral training programmes for young musicians, celebrated its 50th anniversary in December 2018. Bruce Hodges attended rehearsals and concerts of the landmark season, and looks ahead to the ensemble’s December 2019 edition
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Premium ❘ FeatureFirst Class: European bow makers in America
Despite achieving a high level of quality, the American bow makers of the early 20th century have languished in obscurity – until now. Raphael Gold explores the lives of Frank Kovanda, Ernst Lohberg and Anders Halvarson, who all learnt their craft in the Chicago workshop of William Lewis & Son ...
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Premium ❘ FeatureDefining a Nation
For many classical enthusiasts Brazilian music can be summed up in the folk-inspired compositions of Villa-Lobos. Naxos’s multivolume series The Music of Brazil is set to broaden awareness, beginning with several 19th- and 20th-century composers whose string and orchestral works at once mirrored and defied their country’s colonial history, writes ...
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Premium ❘ FeatureViews on the Bridge
In the second of two articles on set-up, Joseph Curtin investigates the acoustical role of the violin bridge and the interconnected relationships between mass, frequency and resonance
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Premium ❘ FeaturePerfect 5ths
British violinist Rodney Friend has spent many years formulating his method for achieving a relaxed left-hand position. Here, he shares his voyage of discovery with Charlotte Smith
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Premium ❘ FeatureA teacher for all
Kató Havas, the celebrated and much-loved Hungarian violinist and pedagogue, died on 31 December 2018 aged 98. Five former colleagues and students remember her important and generous influence on their own playing and teaching
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Premium ❘ FeatureA Human Heart
To mark the centenary of the completion and premiere of Elgar’s Cello Concerto, cellist Raphael Wallfisch reflects upon the period and circumstances surrounding the work’s creation and subsequent life
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Premium ❘ FeatureThe Fab Four
At this year’s Suntory Hall Chamber Music Garden festival in Tokyo the Kuss Quartet performed a complete Beethoven cycle on the ‘Paganini’ quartet of Stradivaris, on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation. Gavin Dixon spoke to the players about this very special project – and learnt a little more about ...
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Premium ❘ FeatureA Master Copyist
Gaetano Sgarabotto was renowned for making replicas of old Italian instruments – and left numerous records of his research on their makers’ styles. Focusing on his replica scrolls, Andrea Zanrè examines the secrets of Sgarabotto’s success
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Premium ❘ FeatureTaste the Difference
Burgundy’s Musique & Vin festival has quickly grown from its humble origins to encompass a rich diversity of elements, not least first-rate performances from international artists and an instrument loan scheme for young musicians. Charlotte Gardner spoke to those involved in this unique project
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Premium ❘ FeatureAll Set up and Ready to Go
In the first of two articles looking at instrument set-up, Joseph Curtin examines the acoustic roles played by the tailpiece and fingerboard in affecting vibration, frequency and resonance
