MORE ON THE KREUTZER QUARTET AT ALDEBURGH here LINK Visit Tim Rutherford-Johnson’s website HERE The Kreutzer Quartet’s first violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved talks to me (over Zoom) in front of a case of thick wooden shelves stuffed with books, manuscripts and papers. We’re discussing the two concerts he has programmed at Aldeburgh this year. Like […]
January 15, 2014
Facing Enlightenment II – Peter Sheppard Skaerved LINK TO BLOG 1 On December 13th, I returned to the British Museum for the next stage of my adventure with the wonderful ‘Enlightenment Gallery’project page . A joy of this unique room, is that it is not only an exhibit concerning the histories of ideas, but a […]
July 29, 2013
The String Quartet Now, or From Where I Sit … A Very Personal View Contemporary Music Review 2013(CMR)Published online-26th July 2013 Link to article I spend my musical life moving back and forth, between being first violin of the Kreutzer Quartet and the more isolated world of a solo violinist. Sitting with my colleagues around […]
November 24, 2012
“Like any violinist, Bach is the private centre of what I do. Despite playing the Sonatas & Partitas from a young age, it was not until my early thirties that I performed the cycle in public. Even today, even though I am someone who just loves to talk about music, I find that on the […]
June 5, 2012
Malibran-the final concert On the 15th September, La Malibran gave her final concert, at the Manchester Festival , singing Beethoven, Mercadante, Rossini, Mozart, and ‘le Songe de Tartini’, with the composer, her new husband Charles de Bériot, duetting with her on the violin. The line up of performers for the concert […]
March 28, 2012
David Matthews-Works for Solo Violin Peter Sheppard Skærved February 2012 In the winter of 1993, I was preparing a series of Bach concerts for Taiwan and Japan. The rehearsals took place in a dark and cold church in North London. My friend Arajit Chakravarty, who was playing in the group, came up to me […]
October 22, 2011
Revolution LINK to Viotti in Washington The French revolution depended on music, and musicians, to spread its message, like no political movement before. For hundreds of years, the Church had relied on music for its propagandising; choir schools had trained generations of young singers and instrumentalists. With the early Revolution, the Church and the officer […]
October 20, 2011
Paganini in Washington. A long term collaboration with the collections of the Library of Congress-Washington Paganini never visited America, although the subject of a tour came up a number of times. Letter from J Watson. New York, 8 November 1835, ‘Invitation to America. “We await the pleasure of seeing you in America where I pray […]
May 11, 2011
Brahms to Hanslick 11th December 1888: ‘Dear Friend. If tomorrow, Friday at eleven o’clock, you haven’t anything better to do, perhaps you would like to come and help Hubay and myself turn pages and play wrong notes-perhaps also to drink a good glass? Cordially yours, Johannes Brahms. Regenlied- Karl Groth Wie die Kelche, die […]
April 12, 2011
Pierre Rode inspired Beethoven to write his most lyrical G Major Sonata Op 96, which Rode premiered in Vienna at Christmas 1812. The first truly international French violinist to emerge from this environment was Pierre Rode. Following the writing of the Méthode, Rode was barely to be found in Paris, but was permanently on tour. […]
June 12, 2023