I had the very great pleasure of being on Radio 3’s Record Review this morning with Andrew McGregor (thankfully pre-recorded, as I hadn’t done one before). I’d been asked to talk about new box sets of Joseph Szigeti and Max Rostal. I’d heard plenty of Szigeti before – he was one of the players that Steven Isserlis had chosen when he guest edited the ‘great players’ issue of The Strad for me. But this box set was a chance to listen quite comprehensively to his playing (albeit

A summer festival in Silicon Valley initiates young players into the joys and challenges of chamber music and then sends them out into the world to spread the word. It seems to be working ‘We are excited to share this music with you,’ announces the smartly attired 11-year-old boy from the stage of the Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton. His colleagues (aged 11 and 13) from the Young Performers Program of the Chamber Music Institute have just illuminated some of the

Musicians can generate their own publicity without spending a penny, by sending out their own press releases. Here are some of the things you need to know Even in an age of websites and social media, the old-fashioned press release is still an important part of any musical project. It contains everything a magazine or website editor needs to know, laying the groundwork for media coverage, reviews, relationships, future opportunities and even funding. Ultimately, it stands as

The London Symphony Orchestra’s early evening concert format is a welcome development in the city’s entertainment landscape, for music lovers and novices alike Tonight I experienced my first Half Six Fix with London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican – only a year after it was introduced as part of Simon Rattle’s new directorship as a way to encourage new audiences. Half Six Fix does what it says on the bottle – starts at 6.30pm and lasts an hour, in this case perfectly balan

Amateur musicians are a vital part of the classical music world, but don’t always get the recognition or opportunities they deserve or need. It’s time for the music establishment to bring them into the fold Last week I played the violin with Nicola Benedetti. Well my whole band, Corinthian Chamber Orchestra, did, but I got your attention. And she certainly got ours. I’ve never seen us collectively more alert, focused and responsive in rehearsals – and quiet. If those sound li

The recent Amsterdam String Quartet Biennale explored various aspects of the string quartet format, including the many life lessons it offers us Four people whose lives are intricately entangled – musically, geographically and financially: not The Beatles or Rolling Stones, but your average string quartet. Rather than rock music and drugs, their lives revolve around arguments about bow direction, use of vibrato and how to interpret Schubert’s accents. Audiences may not witnes

The internet offers musicians fantastic opportunities to build their reputations and legacies, as well as selling their music. They should take more advantage of it When it comes to music, I’ve often been a late adopter. Innate scepticism leads me to disregard trends and the latest ‘big thing’. So while I vaguely remember Dmitri Hvorostovsky winning the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 1989, for the next 30 years I barely noticed him. Then he died. Since then, I’ve

Wigmore Hall’s new photography policy offers a sensible way forward in today’s visual culture and more venues should follow suit There are few things as likely to light my fuse as the blue glow of a phone screen during a concert. Recently at the Royal Opera House a lady in front of me took out her phone to photograph Rigoletto mid-aria and I nearly choked on my own outrage. Yet, if you look at my social media feeds, you’ll see they’re full of slightly fuzzy photographs of sol

Why is music education and pedagogy not taken more seriously in the music world?

Car boot sales offer a brilliant lesson in salesmanship, and for this rookie also raised questions about buying and selling violins I’m not a natural sales person. I have an English coyness in talking about money and I don’t like asking for things. Put those together and you get an awkward bargainer. But as someone wise once told me, life is fundamentally about selling – whether it’s yourself, your opinion, your writing or your playing. It doesn’t matter how good you are at s

Alexey Stadler‘s unexpected Proms debut last night was such stuff as careers are made on Performing at the Proms on a day’s notice is the sort of thing that features in students’ nightmares (probably with no clothes on), but 25-year-old cellist Alexey Stadler handled last night’s unexpected debut at one of the world’s most prestigious music festivals, in place of an ill Truls Mørk, with poise and guts – even performing a movement of Bach as an encore, spurred on by a delighte

I’ve interviewed many wonderful musicians over the year, have learnt much and had my thinking challenged many times. Here are just a few of the highlights, with links to the full articles: 1 Being an amateur is something to aspire to: perfection is over-rated The late Peter Cropper, former leader of the Lindsays ‘I didn’t start practising until I was 18, and I had a lot to make up. I think that’s why the quartet was successful for the four of us – because we were four amateur

I have a theory that musicians write in exactly the same style that they play their instruments. I’m pleased to see it proven, somewhat unscientifically, by the new book from Takács Quartet first violinist Edward Dusinberre, Beethoven for a Later Age. In this engaging and insightful account of his life with the group and with the composer’s quartets, Dusinberre shows himself to be as thoughtful, sincere and open a writer as he is a violinist. He also proves adept at counterpo

The ground-breaking English folk band has broken up after 12 years, leaving this fangirl sad – but grateful I’m not a mosher. I don’t generally mosh. I’m more likely to be seen standing at the back of a gig venue, hands in pockets, listening carefully, judging warily and only jiggling my hips – a little self-consciously – if the music takes me. Maybe it’s something to do with my classical music background and a training in which every sound gets analysed, every phrase gets cr

Who are my favourite violinists? A list of 20, which I made for Sinfini Music in 2014, still largely stands, but is sure to provoke a response from fellow violin lovers Classical music website Sinfini Music recently closed, a sad loss to the classical music world, and a minor – but I hope not fatal – defeat in the project of drawing in new audiences by telling great stories and generating exciting content. I certainly believe this is the future for classical music, and that S

The current Southbank Centre slogan offers a lesson in how not to talk to about classical music There are a few obvious rules in marketing copywriting. One is that if you’re trying to sell a product that has negative associations, you don’t mention those associations. If you’re advertising cigarettes, you don’t use the word ‘cancer’. If you’re selling cheap clothes you don’t bring in ‘child labour’. Even if you put ‘not’ in front of the bad word, the reader doesn’t take it in

A trip to the Musical Instrument Museum in Arizona offered profound and uplifting insights into the human condition, and interesting results at an instrument blind test Do you get depressed watching the news and reading Facebook? Does it feel to you that the world is imploding, with cultures at war, nations fragmenting, and ancient hatreds resurfacing? Well, I have just the tonic for you. Last week I went to Phoenix, Arizona, to give a talk at the Musical Instrument Museum, a

On what would have been the 71th birthday of Jacqueline du Pré, the words of János Starker sound a provocative warning Jacqueline du Pré was born 26th January, 1945 and died on 19th October 1987. She was a natural talent who burned very brightly indeed, all too briefly. She came to epitomise both the joy and optimism of a golden era of music making in the 1960s, and then the searing tragedy of human fragility and the transience of life. Of course we are left with wonderful re

As Nigel Kennedy goes on Radio 4's Mastertapes programme to be rude about Baroque performance practice, here's a blog I wrote in 2011 on the subject I love Nigel Kennedy, really, I do. I’ve been mesmerised by his Elgar, thrilled by his Vivaldi, convinced by his Bach and amused by his jazz. But he doesn’t half talk a load of rubbish sometimes. In his programme notes for his solo Bach BBC Prom concert in August, Kennedy offered his view on the performance of Bach. He took a pop

To mark the UK's National Poetry Day, 8th October, here's George Eliot's great poem about violin making and the obsession with which Stradivarius worked, and indeed the obsession with which any great maker views their 'monotonous task'. She also includes and interesting allegation about Guarneri 'del Gesù' and his 'over-drinking': Stradivarius Your soul was lifted by the wings today Hearing the master of the violin: You praised him, praised the great Sebastian too Who made th