All Features articles – Page 9
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Premium ❘ FeatureBaroque Set-up: In a Land without Rules
With the growth in popularity of historically informed performance, more players are requesting Baroque-style instruments – but the process of converting an instrument is fraught with uncertainty. Sarah Peck presents an overview of the Baroque set-up process, and corrects some common misconceptions along the way
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Premium ❘ FeatureHistorically informed performance: Baroque revolution
Historically informed performance requires no secret code, argues Baroque violin professor Walter S. Reiter. The information is out there for the taking, and modern music colleges need to get ahead of the game
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Premium ❘ FeatureSession Report: A royal consort
Richard Boothby of Fretwork speaks to Robin Stowell about the ensemble’s recording of fantasias for viol consort by Thomas Lupo, the Italian who made a name for himself at Queen Elizabeth I’s court
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Premium ❘ FeaturePietro Castrucci: Resurrecting a Baroque maverick
When Gerald Elias unearthed music by the little-known London-based 18th‑century composer and virtuoso violinist Pietro Castrucci, he discovered a unique and independent musical voice
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Premium ❘ FeatureAugust Rau: The old-fashioned way
At a time when bow making in Germany was leaning towards industrialisation, August Rau kept up the tradition of independent craftsmanship. Gennady Filimonov tells the story of his long career and examines several examples of his work
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Premium ❘ FeaturePaul Makanowitzky: From prodigy to pedagogue
Swedish-born violinist Paul Makanowitzky ultimately helped create the American school of violin playing. David Hays explores his life and multifaceted career
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Premium ❘ FeatureViolin making in Seoul: Gangnam style
Over the past decade, a wide community of violin and bow makers has grown up in the Seocho district of Seoul. Luthier Hagit Gili Gluska speaks to colleagues young and old, both local and from overseas, who have made this area their home
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Premium ❘ FeatureViktoria Mullova: Her infinite variety
Violinist Viktoria Mullova talks to Toby Deller about her eclectic musical collaborations, mastering the art of improvisation, experimenting with technique, and her new Schubert recording with pianist Alasdair Beatson
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Premium ❘ FeaturePekka Kuusisto, a green violinist
Elegy for the Forest, Pekka Kuusisto’s short film made in collaboration with Greenpeace, aims to build awareness of deforestation. He speaks to Peter Quantrill about combining art and activism
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Premium ❘ FeatureJacob Stainer’s birth: A question of dates
For centuries, historians have tried to settle on a definitive birthdate for Tyrolean luthier Jacob Stainer. Heinz Noflatscher explains how we now have an upper limit for his birth year – and why researchers were foxed by the elegant handwriting of the master
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Premium ❘ FeatureCasey Driessen: Music in other lands
In 2019, American five-string fiddler Casey Driessen and his family took off around the world for nine months for his music-sharing project Otherlands: A Global Music Exploration. In a tantalising snapshot of his journey, often into the musical unknown, he recalls meeting and playing with some of the great regional ...
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Premium ❘ FeatureJohannes Moser: Surrounded by sound
The German–Canadian cellist Johannes Moser embraces experimentation. He talks to Peter Quantrill about channelling his inner Jimi Hendrix and exploring the sound of the electric cello which, alongside the conventional cello, features in his latest recordings for Platoon
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Premium ❘ FeatureSchroetter and Roth: Two of a kind
With the demand for mass-produced German instruments skyrocketing in the 1920s, enterprising makers sent family members to America to represent them. Clifford Hall explores the careers and legacies of Andrew Schroetter and Heinrich Roth
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Premium ❘ FeatureSession Report: A meeting at the crossroads
For violinist Rachel Podger and pianist Christopher Glynn, recording Beethoven’s violin sonatas, which occupy the stormy transitional period between Classicism and Romanticism, brought together their disparate musical specialisms, as they tell Harry White
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Premium ❘ FeatureLuigi Cavallini: A maker in the rough
Tuscany in the 19th century was home to numerous luthiers, some of whom were carpenters who turned their hands to instrument making. Florian Leonhard examines the career of Luigi Cavallini, a lesser-known self-taught maker whose work, while unusual in parts, displays a surprisingly high level of craftsmanship
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Premium ❘ FeatureTwo Shapiros: musical doubles
Though unrelated by birth, US violinists Eudice Shapiro and Frances Shapiro (later Magnes) forged parallel careers which provide a fascinating insight into the lives of female musicians during the mid-20th century, writes Tully Potter
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Premium ❘ FeatureEarly lutherie experience: The journeyman years
The time spent between finishing at violin making school and striking out on your own can be critical to a luthier’s learning experience. Peter Somerford finds out what makers should expect from their first jobs in a workshop – and how they can make the most of their time
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Premium ❘ FeatureLeonidas Kavakos: Deep thinker
For Leonidas Kavakos, recording Bach’s Solo Sonatas and Partitas has been the culmination of a 30‑year artistic journey and, as the violinist tells Charlotte Smith, the works have a pertinent message for our troubled times
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Premium ❘ FeatureColeridge-Taylor violin and chamber music: From fame to footnote
Despite his prolific output, the works of British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor have been performed relatively infrequently in the century following his death. Tatjana Goldberg explores his chamber and violin music, particularly the Violin Concerto, and his fruitful artistic partnership with pioneering US violinist Maud Powell
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Premium ❘ FeatureSession Report: Landscape of shadows
Cellist Laura van der Heijden talks to Tom Stewart about the subtle, often other-worldly atmosphere inhabited by Czech and Hungarian music in her new recording with pianist Jâms Coleman