All Focus articles – Page 39
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FocusHow lockdown inspired me to compose for my own instrument
When the first lockdown hit in March 2020, composer-cellist Colin Alexander was finally inspired to write multi-layered solo music for his own instrument - something he had never tried before, as he explains here
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Focus‘I think there’s a feeling that you expect out of an encore’ – Hilary Hahn
The violinist Hilary Hahn speaks to Charlotte Gardner about her encore choices
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FocusDoes criticising Vivaldi's abundant output miss the point?
Violinist Boris Begelman’s new recording represents a small fraction of the hundreds of violin concertos Vivaldi wrote during his lifetime – but people miss the point when they assume the composer’s prolific output equates to works of lesser quality, he tells Tom Stewart
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Focus‘On paper, it should have been a match made in heaven’ – Julian Lloyd Webber on his struggle to find the right cello
The British cellist remembers bumps in the road that led him to remortgage his house to pay for the c.1690 ‘Barjansky’ Stradivari
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FocusHenning Kraggerud: Life Lessons
The Norwegian violinist and composer explores the importance of finding a work’s inner meaning when creating one’s musical voice
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Focus5 tips for juggling early parenthood with life as a soloist
Virtuoso violinists share their insight on balancing the demands of early parenthood and a career as a soloist
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Focus‘Is $16 million for a violin too much to pay? Not these days’
In the 1998 movie The Red Violin, a great violin maker named Nicolo Bussotti, based on the real-life luthier Antonio Stradivari, supposedly mixes the blood of his deceased beloved wife into the varnish of what is to be his most precious creation. The violin’s journey, from its creation in Cremona ...
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FocusHow a Berlin-based Yorkshire violinist experienced Brexit through his music
The violinist Simon Goff explains how he was affected by Brexit as a Brit living in Germany
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Focus’You’ll slime them in and slime them out’ – song of the gut string makers
A new translation of a celebratory song brings to life the grisly business of gut string manufacture
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FocusRachel Barton Pine on juggling motherhood with a career as a solo violinist
In this article from our archive, originally published in May 2012, the American violinist Rachel Barton Pine explains how she negotiated the early months of motherhood while maintaining her busy solo career
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FocusThe dramatic story behind Ludomir Różycki’s Violin Concerto
Polish virtuoso Janusz Wawrowski’s new arrangement of Ludomir Różycki’s Violin Concerto reveals a far more optimistic work than its wartime origins suggest, writes Harry White
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FocusDavid Garrett: ‘Even if you’re arranging Metallica or Iron Maiden, there needs to be a sense of classical culture’
In this extract from our April issue, the violin superstar talks to us about writing the perfect crossover cover
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FocusHow do you balance the piano with strings?
Producing a nuanced, well-balanced and blended combination of piano and strings can be a difficult performance feat to achieve. Pauline Harding talks to chamber musicians, soloists and teachers to discover some of their secrets
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Focus7 warming up and cooling down exercises for musicians
Suggested warm-ups prior to playing and cool-down stretches following performance and/or practice
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Focus‘I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to play the violin any more’ – David Garrett
Garrett was plagued by feelings of inadequacy after spending his childhood in the classical spotlight, he tells Charlotte Smith
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FocusHideko Udagawa: Life Lessons
Like her teacher Nathan Milstein, the Japanese–British violinist argues that technique isn’t everything
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FocusSteven Isserlis – ‘In private Ivry Gitlis was quite similar to how he was in public’
When Ivry Gitlis died on Christmas Eve last year at the age of 98 there was an outpouring of love and affection from the musical community. In this article, paying tribute to the great violinist’s life and career, Tully Potter quotes cellist Steven Isserlis
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Focus‘It was the escape plan for less than first-class musicians’ – David Garrett on changing attitudes to crossover playing
Abandoned by his management, David Garrett had to overcome snobbery to return to the classical spotlight, as he tells Charlotte Smith
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FocusOn the challenge of page-turning
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 the issue of page-turning - a universal challenge faced by orchestral ...
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Focus'It’s awful to hear yourselves back and realise that it’s way too obvious’ – Engegård Quartet
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
