Marooooon

I'm tired of ViolinMP3.com being so luridly blue. So I'm going to make it luridly Maroon for a bit. If anyone hates it unbearably, squawk and I can change it.

The Most Expensive Violin

The final concert before Christmas was a private event hosted by a major benefactor of Live Music Now. A Christmas celebration, if you like. Daniel and I took along a few short pieces, including his beautiful new arrangement of Irving Berlin's White Christmas. We arrived and began to rehearse at the venue, a beautiful house in Central London, and the host casually asked me if I would like to try a violin he had to hand. "Incidentally, it used to be Vieuxtemps' violin. It was his del Gesu. It's the most expensive violin left in private hands". It turned out that this was a 1741 Cremonese instrument, as used for recordings by Yehudi Menuhin.

I played it... what an incredible tone. The RAM Gagliano I am using at the moment has a beautiful sound, yet the power and projection of this instrument was just extraordinary! "Would you like to play the violin for the 'White Christmas' encore? I'll introduce the violin before you play." Well, what do you think?!

'Don't drop it', joked the audience, collectively.

-Gulp-

So there I was, playing a Bing Crosby number on one of the most valuable violins on the planet. The moment we finished, I grabbed a case, and took off out of the ground floor window with the instrument, running as fast as my legs could carry me, with the outraged owner running after...
...well, the thought did cross my mind :)

The beauty of such a glorious experience is tempered by the reality that few instruments I will play in the future will match the intensity and richness of tone I heard and created today. But such instruments exist, and that fact alone is an endless source of wonder.

Link: Cozio.com - massively comprehensive website of italian instruments.

Virtual IPod

I may be rubbish at working out how to stream video, but you can't deny this is very cool!

Virtual Ipod

Rorem Violin Concerto

I went to see La Valse and the Rorem Violin Concerto, both at the Royal Opera House. The latter, performed on this occasion by the rich-sounding Vasko Vassilev (ROH Concertmaster), is a weird piece of music. A writer on the Good Music Guide website describes it as "a mish-mash of styles, a traffic-jam of ideas. Fast, slow, comic, serious, melodious and complex. Listen a few times. It grows on you."

I think I'm going to need to listen a few more times. It's one of those pieces you can't 'get' on a single hearing. Any Rorem experts out there who would like to contribute something to VMP3 about this work?

Link: Ned Rorem's website

Da Court Lane Massive

Woohoo! Got an email from Virgin Records - Massive Attack liked the track, and it's going on the album. They have a very weird website. You can find it here.

Pop Goes the Soundtrack

We did a proper CLM-coordinated session today for composer Mike Jennings, adding string textures to a new track for Massive Attack. It was a demo, so we'll have to wait and see if they want to go ahead or not, but it was good fun nonetheless. I'm lucky to have some great players to draw on - it's a fantastic sensation to have total confidence in your people at the beginning of a session. Maybe it's the positive atmosphere that results? - everyone gets a boost, people are happy, things 'flow'.

I like working in a studio environment. I don't have much experience of it yet, but that will come with time. Listening to some of the newly discovered John Lennon interviews, I begin to get a feeling for a way of working that's both very different from traditional classical ensemble recording, and very similar. Looser, perhaps? What happens if you have a classical group that's primarily studio-based? These are all things I want to think about and maybe experiment with in the future.

I bet you're wondering where the webcasts are. So am I. I 'tink I need a bit of 'elp. But live concerts are a priority and I've had to step in last minute for a big concert next week, so it may have to wait a while longer.

Incidentally, for you central-london-people, I will be performing Mendelssohn Concerto on Wed 7 December somewhere in the Strand (Clement Danes church?) at 7.30pm. Do come along :)

My First Employee

A big hand please for... PETER GREGSON, new Director of Events at Court Lane Music (and he plays a mean electric cello too!). An occasional 'out of hours' occupation of mine (in addition to being a full time student, violinist, webmaster etc.etc.etc. ad nauseam) is playing for glamourous corporate clients (e.g. Daily Telegraph, JP Morgan, and more asset management companies than you could shake a viola at), but sadly this has been rather too, er, successful for me to keep in check... a nice problem to have.

Peter 's going to join us part-time to look after and develop our enoooormously classy string quartet service and make it much much better. And do some celloing to boot. So if you're not interested in my Mozart and Mendelssohn, and would prefer Elton's Your Song, a quick blast of Cock Linnet, or even the AristoCATs, Peter's your man.