All Premium ❘ Feature articles – Page 3
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Premium ❘ FeatureSession report: zooming in on Beethoven
Trio con Brio Copenhagen is marking its 20th anniversary by recording the complete Beethoven piano trios. Andrew Mellor attends a session for the group’s third volume, including the monumental ‘Archduke’
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Standing Strong: Shostakovich’s violin works
Fifty years ago David Oistrakh premiered Shostakovich’s Violin Sonata, written for the violinist’s 60th birthday. Only two further works by Shostakovich for solo violinist survive: the concertos, both for Oistrakh. Andrew Morris examines all three pieces, uncovering their interpretative challenges in conversation with Gidon Kremer, Julia Fischer and Vadim Gluzman ...
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Stradivari’s moulds: Variations on a theme
Twelve violin moulds from Antonio Stradivari’s workshop still survive, but how do they correspond to the master’s oeuvre? In the first of two articles,Philip Ihle and Andrea Zanrè present the results of an exhaustive survey to match forms to finished instruments
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Stradivari’s corners: Music of the spheres
The publication of high-accuracy violin photography has opened up new possibilities for researching Cremonese masterpieces up close and en masse. Philip Ihle examines Antonio Stradivari’s purfling corners across 136 examples and reveals their relationship with the luthier’s forms
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Shanghai Quartet: Musical Emissaries
The Shanghai Quartet celebrates its 35th anniversary during the 2018–19 season by performing eight complete Beethoven cycles around the world. The players speak to Charlotte Smith about forming at a time when Western chamber music was barely understood in their native China, and about promoting the art form to Chinese ...
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Nelli Shkolnikova’s principles of violin technique
The great Russian violinist and pedagogue died early in 2010. Curt Thompson, one of her former students, looks back on her life and examines her teaching methods
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Stefan-Peter Greiner on individuality in violin making
For Stefan-Peter Greiner, instrument making is not about copying; it’s about individuality, experimentation and intuition. In conversation with Pauline Harding, the German luthier discusses his ideas on sound adjustment, ‘Stradivari frequencies’ and creating the ideal working environment
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New 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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Track 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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Seeing 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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‘I’ve always been led by music’
For Christophe Coin, the French cellist, gambist and musical time-traveller, historically informed performance practice involves a combination of forensic-level investigation and leap-of-faith creativity. In conversation with Helen Wallace, he describes the instruments and scholarship behind his work as an interpreter
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‘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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‘Art has space for everything’, says Patricia Kopatchinskaja
She describes her violin as a family member, and her storyteller’s gift as an interpreter has won her artist residencies at the Lucerne and Kissinger Sommer festivals this year. Patricia Kopatchinskaja talks to Toby Deller about sound, vision and changing the world through music
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Three’s Company
A decade after its founding, Trio Zimmermann has put the string trio back in the spotlight. How does this all-star ensemble function, and can it save the string trio from obscurity? Andrew Mellor went to meet its members
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Buying the right instrument for you
Whatever your needs, whatever your budget, there's an instrument out there for you. Laurinel Owen suggests some ways to find it
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Trade Secrets: a peninsular bench extension
Ideas for a workplace addition that is completely accessible from all three of its sides
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Making Matters: the DNA of design
David Beard argues that the old Cremonese makers had a geometric system of design ‘recipes’ to create the vast number of different instrument patterns we see today
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Masterclass: Leila Josefowicz on Berg Violin Concerto Second Movement - part 2
In the second of two articles, Leila Josefowicz discusses the Adagio of the second movement, in the context of the Viennese School and the Neue Sachlichkeit era
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Technique: Sound and phrase
The importance of developing a refined, balanced technique to communicate a nuanced musical line on the double bass
