The Power of Words when teaching a stringed instrument
Over the last few years, in my own journey of learning the violin and the viola, I have been very privileged to take lessons with a wonderful teacher - the Hungarian violinist, Kato Havas. One area in which she has given me much to think about - especially with regard to the way I teach my own [...]
Learning a Violin Concerto by Heart
It is now a couple of weeks since I performed the Beethoven Violin Concerto for the first time with an orchestra. Many people have said it’s not a work violinists should attempt before the age of 40 and as I am rapidly approaching that age (big birthday next year!) and have loved that piece for the last 32 years of [...]
Coming Out of the Silence
I have recently been learning the Beethoven violin concerto from memory for a performance last Saturday with a local orchestra, and the whole process has been full of insights and rewards at every step. Like few other works of this kind for the violin, the Beethoven is a true journey which organically develops from the opening, magical [...]
Beethoven Romance in F for Violin and Orchestra
On Sunday the 4th October I played Beethoven’s Romance no. 2 in F major (op. 50). Traditionally thought of as being written in 1802 or 1803 (when the composer was in his early thirties), there is evidence to suggest that it may have started life in an earlier form as part of Beethoven’s unfinished C [...]