Nikolaj Zainder performs Elgar’s Violin Concerto on the original violin

In 2010, Violinist Nikolaj Znaider performed Elgar’s Violin Concerto on the same 1741 violin in which Kriesler premiered the work on a hundred years before. Znaider was not worried about comparisons to Kriesler’s original performance:

“he way I think of music is that it really is something that is played in the moment – it’s not something you can repeat, it’s never the same experience. If nothing else, that’s because you’ve changed. When you approach music in this way – understanding its nature as something that can’t be repeated – you realise that the ghost of Kriesler is not just one thing. He played one night, then the next night he played it differently. Likewise, my own performance of Elgar’s Violin Concerto is not static.

Jeremy Pound, “First Violin”, BBC Music Magazine, October 2010, p. 36.

Posted

in

by

Greg

Tags:

, , ,

Featured Content

A good performance
A good performance is one that moves me. But it is not only the passion and emotion expressed in a performance that move me, it is also allowing the clarity of the structure, as well as the different characters, to shine through, a well-judged balance, a sense of architecture of the whole piece and, at […]
Music is the real life
In modern life electricity plays a great part.  Sometimes it is used destructively – sometimes creatively – but there is another power which is like electricity, only far more subtle and penetrating.  This power is all-pervading.  It is omnipresent.  If we understood this power we would know the secret of the magical influence of music.  […]
A mushroom anyone?
…everybody was possessed by the Russian passion for gathering mushrooms.  Rivalries ran high, mushrooms were counted and compared, their beauty was discussed.  Rachmaninoff was an early riser and often went alone for a walk in the woods.  He used to return contented and start teasing (he was a great teaser).  One day he badgered us […]
Believe in Luck
“I am a great believer in luck and the harder I work the more of it I have.”— Stephen Leacock, Canadian author American Opinion, volume 2, issues 8-11, page 20
Be a dreamer
“Be a dreamer. If you don’t know how to dream, you’re dead.” – Jim Valvano, American basketball coach
Turn to the Lord in your Need (Setting II) – Psalm 68 (69)
Title: Turn to the Lord in your need (Setting II) Text: Psalm 68 (69): 14, 17, 30-31, 33-34, 36, 37 Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part     Sample:
Abstraction VIII
Title: Abstraction VIII Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score SAMPLE:
Ode to Music and Moonlight
We are the music-makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams, Wandering by lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams; World-losers and world-forsakers, On whom the pale moon gleams: Yet we are the movers and shakers Of the world for ever, it seems. With wonderful deathless ditties We build up the world’s great cities, And […]
Meditation I
Title: Meditation I Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano Product medium: PDF score SAMPLE:
One way to get a doctorate
Robert Schumann aspired to be awarded a doctorate degree. On January 31 1840, Robert Schumann asked a friend to appeal to the University of Jena to give him an honorary degree, or set him a degree to pass, on the grounds of: “My sphere of action as an editor on a high-class paper, which has […]