Playing – Page 32
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Premium ❘ ArticleOpinion: going international
Despite the large number of young and talented British string players, few seem to make an impact as leading soloists on the world stage. Charlotte Gardner explores the reasons for this phenomenon
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Premium ❘ ArticleSentimental work: Rivka Golani on Michael Colgrass’ Chaconne
As well as giving the first performance of Michael Colgrass’s Chaconne, the Israeli violist provided the initial spark of inspiration – with the help of her own paintings
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Premium ❘ FeatureNew possibilities
From Baroque to electronics, Pekka Kuusisto can’t stop exploring new possibilities. PETER SOMERFORD finds out how the Finnish violinist’s perspective on music has evolved
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Premium ❘ FeatureTrack changes
Following the emergence of minimalist music in 1960s America, some of the style’s most enduring works have been written for strings, among them Steve Reich’s Different Trains. Pwyll ap Sion finds out how performers overcome the technical and psychological challenges of playing this music
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Premium ❘ FeatureSeeing the light
This August the musicians of the Carducci Quartet will take on one of the great quartet challenges when they mark 40 years since Shostakovich’s death by performing his complete quartet cycle in a single day. They share their reasons for doing so with Chloe Cutts
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Premium ❘ ArticleMy favourite things
Norwegian cellist TRULS MØRK reveals the figures, instruments and recording that mean the most to him
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Premium ❘ Feature‘You have to give yourself over to this painful journey’
Complex, knotty, cryptic – the treacherous elements of Biber’s Rosary Sonatas are a rite of passage for Baroque violinists and their instruments alike. Rachel Podger, who joins a long list of early music specialists to record the work, talks to Philip Clark about how she and her violin survived the ...
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Premium ❘ FeatureFrom the Archive: January 1900
An unsolved mystery from 1869: T.L. Phipson relates how a c.1709 Stradivari violin vanished without trace – and as far as we know, remains missing to this day
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Premium ❘ FeatureExpanding the limits
Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili has recently taken on new challenges, among them artistic directorship of the Audi Summer Concerts festival and performing on the soundtrack to The White Crow. But, she tells Toby Deller, she finds equal joy in creating wonderful interpretations from long-term partnerships
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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 ❘ 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 ❘ FeatureInvitation to the Dance: Bach’s Cello Suites
A knowledge of French Baroque dance can open up new ways of approaching and performing Bach’s Cello Suites, argues cellist Ulrich Heinen. In this practical guide, he highlights the many steps and gestures evoked in the works.
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Premium ❘ FeatureFrom the Archive: December 1909
The pseudonymous ‘L.H.W.’ gives his thoughts on teaching, in an article he might himself call ‘profuse and extravagant in expression’
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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 ❘ 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 ❘ FeatureIs repetitive practice a good or a bad thing?
A prolonged, sickening and monotonous repetition of a section of music or the legitimate means of mastering a difficult passage? Joseph O'Doherty weighs up the two sides.
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Premium ❘ FeatureViolinist David Juritz on overcoming a painful shoulder injury
The London-based instrumentalist was helped by physiotherapy and Pilates
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Premium ❘ FeatureMasterclass: Nils Mönkemeyer on Stamitz First Viola Concerto
The German violist looks at how to tackle the challenges in the first movement of this important audition piece with style, panache and calm
