January 2021 issue

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Cover features

CT-Scanning the ‘Messiah’ Stradivari violin

In 2016 the ‘Messiah’ Stradivari was the subject of an extensive CT scanning project. Francesco Piasentini and Gregg Alf examine the resulting data, discovering repair work in the neck, and attempt to determine how it had originally been set

Jean Guihen-Queyras: A journey through time

Recording Beethoven’s ‘Triple’ Concerto last June allowed French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras to step back into near normality, among colleagues and friends. He tells Pauline Harding about recording at a social distance, the importance of musical ‘family’, and why working with living composers has helped him to find contemporary relevance in ...

George Neikrug: Memories of a legend

Cellist George Neikrug, who died in 2019 at the age of 100, was a celebrated performer and orchestral principal. However, his skills as a pedagogue were second to none, writes University of Wisconsin-Whitewater professor Benjamin Whitcomb, who has gathered personal recollections

Basic Maintenance: Avoiding instrument carnage

Luthiers often see the same basic problems when repairing instruments – and most of them could be solved by some simple care and attention from the players themselves. Korinthia Klein presents a simple guide to violin maintenance, without encroaching on the experts’ territory

Two-fingered Tchaikovsky: Beating the odds

Despite losing the function of the third and fourth fingers of his left hand through focal dystonia and a shoulder injury, violinist Clayton Haslop was determined to continue playing. Here he shares his story

Session Report: Right place, right time

For Renaud Capuçon, recording Elgar’s Violin Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra and Simon Rattle was a dream come true – and one that he couldn’t allow to be derailed by Covid-19’s lockdown restrictions, as he tells Charlotte Gardner