2025 in quotes

I’ve been lucky to interview some magnificent musicians over the last year for various media – mainly for BBC Music magazine, The Strad, BBC Proms print programmes and as part of my work at Maestro Arts. Here are a few of the great things they had to say…

Itzhak Perlman on today’s players (The Strad and Elbow Music)

‘When you think about the great violinists, from say 1930 until 1960 – Kreisler, Heifetz, Milstein, Oistrakh, Elman, Stern, Francescatti, a couple more – each one of these people sounded different. You could tell by the recordings who is who just by the way they played and their sound. Today the level of string playing is incredibly high, but I wonder whether it’s more difficult to guess who is who. That may be because you have the internet and everybody hears what everybody else is doing, and everybody has a tendency to play what is today’s sound. It’s all very good, but every now and then you feel that you want a little more individuality.’

And how his playing his changed:

‘The way I play now and 30, 40 years ago is different. It was very good for what I did then, but if I listen to it today, I wouldn’t do it that way. I would do it differently. I hear better and am able to hear where everything goes. Everything is more orderly in my brain as to how to construct phrases and so on… It’s a question of a different kind of concentration – maybe I was concentrating more technically. Maybe there is a more sophisticated hearing process as you get older. I was talking to a wind player the other day who said, ‘Now I’m older, I can hear all the phrases. It’s fantastic. It’s just a shame I can’t really play it!’ So you want to make sure that when you study the mechanics of what makes a sound good in the left or right hand, you have a good, solid technical background, because it helps as you get older. You can do anything as a young person. It may not necessarily be correct, but you can get away with it. As you get older, it becomes more like ‘I have a crick in my neck!’’

Nicola Benedetti on the importance of reaching for excellence (BBC Music and Elbow Music)

‘There can be excellence in how you play Twinkle, twinkle, little star; how you stand with your instrument; your stage presence before and after you play something incredibly simple; how you listen to those around you or watch a conductor. There can be excellence at every single level of attainment. I’m told, by those involved in education and cultural language, not to use that word so often. I think that’s a misinterpretation of a higher meaning of the word and its aspirational quality.’

And what playing the violin teaches about leadership

‘There’s nothing more exposing and hard than playing a violin concerto, even though I’ve done it since I was four. There’s very little that comes close to that in terms of focus, concentration, challenge, responsibility and complete ownership. You can’t turn around and blame anybody else for what you do up there.’

Lisa Batiashvili on the Sibelius Violin Concerto (BBC Proms programme and Elbow Music)

‘The difficulty of the opening is to create the light atmosphere. It should be still, like a ray of light that comes from the other side of the world rather than being present right away. The piece is like a monologue for the violin voice, with several cadenzas, and very free. The third movement is highly virtuousic, but it shouldn’t sound like a technical piece. It should sound grounded – it’s important to have a kind of heaviness while your fingers are flying. Sibelius was a good violinist himself, but frustrated, and he wanted to put every possible technical difficulty into this concerto, to make the player work hard. It’s still one of the most technically challenging concertos.’

And playing in the Royal Albert Hall

‘One feels like a small insect when one looks out form the stage. One has to play the same way, but be aware that the space is so huge. I visualise the audience in the last row and play for them, without trying to change anything drastically, because that would not be good for the music. I try to create something special on stage with my musical partners and force the audience to be really attentive.’

The ups and downs of being a musician

‘You have to accept that the body and mind have waves. They come up and down. It’s so important to understand that, luckily, the life of a musician is long, and we will always have moments where we feel different. And then we take another turn and make new experiences that give us the opportunity to teach ourselves better.’

Fabio Biondi on finding new audiences (Maestro Arts)

‘The idea that we must change the expectations of classical music in order to increase our audiences and encourage young generations is wrong. We should use our talent to show how wide-ranging and fantastic classical music is, rather than using classical music to show how talented we are. Leave behind the focus on the musician and focus on the music. This is a very important difference in perspective. Communication is very important, including how we present programmes, meeting the audience, and being a little less severe in how we behave and dress. These are all good revolutions.’

‘I am extremely optimistic about Baroque music. When I play Baroque programmes, we usually have 20 per cent more young people than in Romantic and newer music. Baroque music has a lot in common with jazz, with its ornamentation and improvisation. Young people appreciate this spontaneity and liberty, which doesn’t exist in Romantic music.’

Antonio Pappano on conducting Puccini (BBC Proms programme)

‘When you’re working on music that’s written by an opera composer, there are two things you have to deal with. The first is the melody, obviously. If you hear Italian music performed in Italy, you understand the way Italians relish melody. It’s so soulful. You could say the same of most countries, but in Italy, it has to do with the voice itself and how it works – the expression behind the notes and the tone production. It’s most obvious when the string playing is right, because that’s where Puccini reserves these beautiful chords, often in very close harmony. It’s a diatonic, tonal music, but it has spice. You have to savour the interesting modifications he makes to chords. There’s a sensual aspect in the music making.

‘The second thing is how you deal with the accompaniment. In Italian opera, the accompaniment is often the life blood, the dramatic energy behind everything. In Suor Angelica, the energy is often quite slow – tolling bells. That pulse, that subterranean supporting of the melodic material, is very important in Italian music, going from Rossini through to Puccini. In Rossini, it’s more to do with a certain ebullient rhythmic energy, whereas in Puccini, it’s often more suave, but it’s the same principle. Then there are the words: the singers have to mean everything they say, and that not as easy as you think to achieve that, because there are vocal preoccupations – this stuff is fiendishly difficult to sing.’

Paul Lewis on developing a career (Maestro Arts)

‘If someone very young and completely unknown suddenly becomes well known, there’s an artificiality in what is expected from them overnight. In some cases, you wonder whether the speed at which a musician’s career has come so suddenly is not conducive to their development as a musician. The career is pulling them along. It’s important to have the chance to grow into a career, for it to be a gradual learning curve. It certainly was for me. If I’d won a big competition when I was 19, it might have destroyed me – I’d be doing something else now. I worry about that for young players. Some personalities are fine with it, but learning to handle the pressure and reality of a career should go hand in hand with your evolution as a musician. It’s best to progress slowly.’

Aigul Akhmetshina on telling stories (BBC Proms programme)

‘Colleagues sometimes ask me how I resonate. My cheeks help – I was lucky to be born with them, and I was always quite loud. I just had these natural resonators, so I never had to think about how to project. I’m very grateful to my teacher, who from the beginning stabilised my voice and built it on good breathing, which is key for good projection and singing. The most important thing is knowing how I’m going to tell the story, because if I know what I’m singing about at any particular moment, it’s easy. If I don’t connect with the story, I cannot sing.’

Iván Fischer on the Kodály method (BBC Proms programme)

‘Kodály was a genius. He sacrificed a lot of time and effort to work out an education system for the country, instead of composing. He spent many years writing exercises, song books and a detailed method. The Kodály method is not just one or two ideas – it’s a whole journey from early childhood, deep into the teenage years. If you follow the method, you learn the basics of music to a profound level. Then, when students start to learn instruments, they have a secure foundation. Another important aspect is that every child should sing in a choir. He believed that there was no such thing as a tone deaf child and that everyone can be taught to sing in tune.’

Sean Shibe on the differences between electric and classical guitar (BBC Proms programme)

‘Julian Bream said of the electric guitar that all classical guitarists find it inherently seductive because we are used to an instrument that is almost defined by its lack of projection, sustain and volume. With the electric guitar we really can turn up the volume to 11. With classical guitar you imply a greater range of volume using a tonal palette, for example, but the electric guitar isn’t that kind of instrument of implication – you are actually manifesting these things. You can turn up the dials, add pedals, use effects like an e-bow to create a distorted, sustained sound. These tools are constantly being developed and can make the electric guitar sound unlike any other instrument. It can sound more like an alien spaceship than anything else. It’s an above-and-beyond instrument, an uber-instrument.’

Lesley Hadfield, leader of BBC National Orchestra of Wales, on playing in the Royal Albert Hall (BBC Proms programme)

‘Over the years, I’ve learnt that you can’t fight the space. You can’t try to play louder in order to fill it, because that won’t work. It is possible to play really quietly, though. I’ve played many solos there and felt I could push the boundaries and play as softly as I wanted, because the audience listens so well and allows the space to do that. Although it’s such a huge space, there’s something very intimate. The Prommers are so close to you and you can feel the listening.

And on the work of the concertmaster and conductor

‘You’re the first line of communication with the conductor, as well as the person that everyone sees. It’s my job to sense very quickly what the conductor wants to do with any particular phrase and to convey that helpfully in the way I play so that colleagues can hear or see what’s happening. There are times when I’m responsible for bringing the sound together, deciding who is the listening focus in any particular place. It’s a big string section, so I’m also trying to make the space occupied by the orchestra smaller, bringing the backs of the string sections together.’

‘A string orchestra doesn’t always need a conductor, if it’s not too big. A symphony orchestra needs a conductor because of the space and the time lags, and because it’s very difficult to hear each other. You can’t be together just by listening to the trombones, for example, who are 50 feet away and can see the string players but can’t hear us.’

‘A good conductor needs to have deep musical knowledge and conviction, a real clarity about how a particular piece needs to go, and the ability to convey that to us so that we can achieve it easily, without too much talking.’

Benjamin Grosvenor on Ravel (BBC Proms programme)

‘Ravel has maybe the greatest hit rate of any composer. Everything he writes is gold. There’s so much variety, too, coming from the influences he absorbed throughout his life, from neo-Baroque pieces like Le Tombeau de Couperin to extraordinary colouristic canvases such as Gaspard de la nuit. And then – looking at this concerto – the way he absorbed improvisational jazz and Spanish Basque styles. There’s an extraordinary craftsmanship to his musical language and an emotional quality. There is often a sense of reserve, of emotions being slightly under the surface, which makes it even more touching – it’s music of great subtlety. It’s a joy to play at the piano, because Ravel knew so well how to write for the instrument. He drew so much out of it, and there’s so much to explore within his writing in terms of sounds and colours.’

Vesko Eschkenazy, concertmaster of Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, on being a concertmaster

‘Concertmaster is a very complex position. I’m busy not only playing the instrument, which is difficult enough, but also with solos, and working with the conductor and soloists, as well as organising other things and watching auditions. What I love most about it is being on stage, feeling the support of the whole orchestra and knowing that we’re going to give a great concert, together. I always have this feeling with the Concertegbouw and it makes me very happy.’

And the importance for orchestras of touring

‘Touring as an orchestra is very important, not only financially for the orchestra, but also, most importantly, because on tour we encounter different halls and different audiences, and we get the chance to give many performances of the same pieces, which means we can get better each time we play. So we are always evolving, making progress each time we play. This is one of the most important things for for the quality of an orchestra, to have the chance to play a programme not just once but many times, so that it becomes part of part of you as an orchestra.’

Matthew Barley on the importance of mental health (BBC Music magazine)

‘We talk about “physical” and “mental” which is unhelpful, because it separates us into different parts. Even the medical profession is starting to say that we have to see ourselves as one entity. And that involves both physical and mental health. People don’t have a problem working on their physical health , so why should they have problems working on their mental health?… If you sleep well , eat well, you’re not involved in any addiction and you get decent exercise and contact with nature and friends, the chances are you’re already quite a long way there.’

Pablo Hernán Benedí, Trio Isimsiz (Musica Viva Australia)

‘Even though some things happen by accident, these become something to play with. That’s also part of the game. We are not always all going to be on the same page when we’re tired but how do you get energy from your colleagues? How can you be poked, as well as poking? That’s very exciting. Sometimes you’re tired, because you’ve been travelling, the violin is upset because you’ve arrived in a humid hall with an ungrateful acoustic and perhaps you’re listening to yourself more than you should. It’s nice that a colleague pokes you – they do something radically new musically and draw you back into the conversation. The unexpected is a tool to bring a sharp focus on listening.’