All Premium ❘ Feature articles – Page 4
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Premium ❘ FeatureJerry Horner: A Virtuoso Teacher
In February last year, former Fine Arts Quartet violist Jerry Horner died at the age of 83. China Conservatory of Music violin professor and past Horner student James Dickenson reflects on the career and teaching legacy of a fine mentor, drawing on interviews with Horner’s students and colleagues, and ...
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Michel Collichon: The Magnificent Ten
Just a handful of instruments by Michel Collichon have survived to the present day – but they demonstrate the skill and techniques of a master innovator. With a tenth example recently identified, Shem Mackey explains the appeal of the 17th-century viol maker to modern-day luthiers
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Retirement from Performance: A Change of Pace
Is there a time when we should admit defeat, acknowledge our age and put our instruments away for good? Or is it possible to keep enjoying, playing and sharing music forever? Pauline Harding talks to musicians young and old about falling standards, failing physiques and a joy of playing music ...
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Alfred Staar: sound master
As a leading proponent of the Viennese sound, Alfred Staar’s influence continues to be felt today – no fewer than 22 of his former students currently hold posts in the Vienna Philharmonic. Inga Brandini shares a conversation with the great professor from 15 March 2000, shortly before his death a ...
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Jacob Stainer: reviewing the situation
It has long been assumed that Jacob Stainer received some training in Cremona – but the theory rests on slim evidence. Rudolf Hopfner explores a middle-period violin using micro-CT technology to cast doubt on what we think we knowWolfgang Schneiderhan
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Augustin Hadelich: brilliant concepts
Since winning the Indianapolis Competition in 2006, violinist Augustin Hadelich has built a reputation for musically astute interpretations in wide-ranging repertoire, much of it written in the 20th and 21st centuries. He speaks to Chloe Cutts about his latest recording – an unusual pairing of Brahms and Ligeti
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Yoga and string playing: …And breathe…
There is a close connection between yogic principles and string playing technique, says cellist Ruth Phillips, who illustrates this with postures chosen in collaboration with her colleague Jane Fenton, and reveals how both Pablo Casals and yoga guru Vanda Scaravelli have informed her musical ideas
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Varnish analysis: shining examples
Identifying the varnish recipes of the early makers has been a long-held dream among researchers. Now, a team at the Arvedi Laboratory of Non-Invasive Diagnostics, headed by Marco Malagodi, has used a new form of micro-CT scanning to delve further into an instrument’s coatings than ever before
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Session 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 ...
