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Jan 3, 2018
Pictures, please!
Wigmore Hall’s new photography policy offers a sensible way forward in today’s visual culture and more venues should follow suit There...
Aug 25, 2017
Happy Birthday, Ivry Gitlis!
The charismatic, idealistic, often contrarian and utterly unique violinist is 95 years young today. In celebration, here is an interview...
Nov 15, 2016
The win–win of music education
Why is music education and pedagogy not taken more seriously in the music world?
Sep 5, 2016
Birth of a salesman
Car boot sales offer a brilliant lesson in salesmanship, and for this rookie also raised questions about buying and selling violins I’m...
Aug 31, 2016
Itzhak Perlman on his violin heroes
In this interview I did with Itzhak Perlman for The Strad’s Violin Heroes supplement in 2009, he remembered and analysed the violinists...
Aug 26, 2016
Review of Alexey Stadler Prom
Alexey Stadler‘s unexpected Proms debut last night was such stuff as careers are made on Performing at the Proms on a day’s notice is the...
Aug 22, 2016
Gilles Apap: ‘Don’t listen to nobody’
Violinist Gilles Apap has one of the most original voices today, crossing easily between classical and folk styles, often in the same...
Aug 17, 2016
11 important musical insights
I’ve interviewed many wonderful musicians over the year, have learnt much and had my thinking challenged many times. Here are just a few...
May 17, 2016
Review of Beethoven for a Later Age
I have a theory that musicians write in exactly the same style that they play their instruments. I’m pleased to see it proven, somewhat...
Apr 30, 2016
Bye Bye, Bellowhead
The ground-breaking English folk band has broken up after 12 years, leaving this fangirl sad – but grateful I’m not a mosher. I don’t...
Apr 5, 2016
20 great violinists
Who are my favourite violinists? A list of 20, which I made for Sinfini Music in 2014, still largely stands, but is sure to provoke a...
Mar 15, 2016
When classical music marketing copy goes wrong
The current Southbank Centre slogan offers a lesson in how not to talk to about classical music There are a few obvious rules in...
Mar 8, 2016
Interview with violinist Regina Carter
Regina Carter started with Dont and Galamian but she only truly found her voice when she discovered jazz. She tells Ariane Todes about...
Jan 28, 2016
A musical tonic for the soul
A trip to the Musical Instrument Museum in Arizona offered profound and uplifting insights into the human condition, and interesting...
Jan 26, 2016
Jacqueline du Pré – a terrible premonition
On what would have been the 71th birthday of Jacqueline du Pré, the words of János Starker sound a provocative warning Jacqueline du Pré...
Jan 26, 2016
Careless talk costs lives
As Nigel Kennedy goes on Radio 4's Mastertapes programme to be rude about Baroque performance practice, here's a blog I wrote in 2011 on...
Dec 31, 2015
Top 5 Elbow Music posts of 2015
Thank you for visiting Elbow Music in 2015. It’s been a bumper year for the site, and I’m planning some developments very shortly, so...
Dec 22, 2015
11 important musical insights
I’ve interviewed many wonderful musicians over the year, have learnt much and had my thinking challenged many times. Here are just a few...
Nov 20, 2015
‘You have to treat Bartók as you do Mozart or Haydn’
Bartók’s quartets are often played ‘brutal, fast and loud’, but they should be approached as Classical masterpieces, says Jerusalem...
Nov 16, 2015
Pinchas Zukerman on how to change the world
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra celebrates its 70th birthday in 2016 and for its commemorative anniversary booklet, I had the...
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