Heinrich Utrecht – Sonata (Rost Codex)

An extraordinary early piece of violin music by Heinrich Utrecht (?-1633) active at Celle, in Lower Saxony at the time of his death in 1633. This can be found in the extraordinary codex collection, compiled by Franz Rost (a cleric, music and copyist) in between 1640-1687

A day filming in Chiswick House & Hogarth House – February 18th 2025

Things I like to play, and you might like to listen to

A list of music which I love to play, building day by day, by composers of all eras and ages! Have fun, as this builds. 31st January – Schubert’s Birthday! Day 31 of ‘Things I like/love to play, and I hope you will like to listen to’. It’s Franz Schubert’s birthday, so here is the […]

Knowledge Exchange Violin – the next stage – Autumn 2024

Knowledge Exchange Violin is now back and running, in earnest! Note – I am posting updates on this post in reverse order, so older posts will be below. Stillwater Minnesota – 16-17th October I arrived in the USA 48 hours ago, and the first day or so have been hectic, so now, it’s not a […]

Questions and answers – a new post

As I begin a new set of collaborations with younger composers in the USA, Sweden and the UK, I have decided to make some of the conversation public: this won’t come in any particular order, and will simply put up the to-and-fro, where an interesting technical or compositional issue is covered. I will just publish […]

The Violin as Body, an introduction

(Do follow the highlighted hyperlinks for supporting materials and music) The violin is eminently practical and portable. As well as being functional, it shares many of the attributes of figurines, whether religious or toys. Like a doll or a cult-linked fetish object, its allure, both for the user or viewer, are tied in with its […]

Three violas, one musician, one composer, one curator.

  Three violas, one musician, one composer, one curator. Peter Sheppard Skærved, with Bradley Strauchen-Scherer and Michael Alec Rose In the  Metropolitan Museum’s extraordinary collection of musical instruments are three special stringed instruments,  made in three different centuries, three countries and two continents. There their differences might suggest that they are different instruments: but these […]

Bach summer

This summer (2024), I am returning to the six sonatas and partitas for solo violin by Johann Sebastian Bach, with a particular eye to my performances of the the cycle at Tremenheere, in July, August and September (LINK ) This of course, is NOT part of the cycle, but, for me, incredibly important for my […]

The Violin in the Chapel – a project for Malmö

Towards a concert – 2nd October 2024 Sankt Petri Kyrka,  Malmö.  For years, I have been mesmerized by a space inside the great medieval Sankt Petri Kyrka,  Malmö. In recent months, I have begun discussing a project responding to this, with the church and with an extraordinary group of Swedish composers. When you walk into […]

Knowledge Exchange – Violin Summer 2024 Violins in Genova, then the Newark Violin School

This is what is is all about – Paganini played on the Vuillaume made for Paganini, and given to his only student, Camillo Sivori, on his death in 1840.  I am back in Genoa! It has been so long since I was last here, and the return has given me so much to think about. […]