Product Description

In this collection of in-depth interviews, today's leading violinists discuss making music on one of the world's most beloved instruments. Whether they're child prodigies just coming onto the stage or cultural icons whose careers have had a lasting influence on generations of players, they provide a rare glimpse into the fascinating life of the classical violin soloist. How they practice, how they work with other musicians, their performance secrets and anxieties, what moves and inspires them - all this and more comes to life in this series of revealing one-on-one conversations. Each of the interviews was conducted by a fellow musician and first published in the pages of Strings magazine, where both professionals and dedicated amateurs share their passion for music.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #996777 in Books
• Published on: 1999-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Customer Reviews

Fiddler's Away
As published in my newsletter, The Media Maven:

Midori Goto's photo graces the paperback cover as a distaff representative of the five women profiled. While she is considered one of THE finest female violinists alive, I am extremely impressed with Nadia Solerno-Sonnenberg. Discussing playing "in the zone," she says, it's "not . . . playing a very good performance, even a great performance, but . . . feeling that if someone were to cut off both my arms, I still would play great." An ironic statement considering that once while chopping onions, the knife slipped and she nearly cut off the end of her left little finger, a digit without which her career would have been over. Surgical reattachment and over a year of physical rehab kept her on the circuit. Once, after the breakup of a relationship, she tried to commit suicide but luckily for the listening public, the gun jammed.

Russian violinist Maxim Vengerov took "years of the lives of his violin's insurance underwriters by making a [TV] commercial that required him to jump out of an airplane with his priceless Strad." Also included in this book are Isaac Stern, Sarah Chang, Pamela Frank, Corey Cerovsek and Nigel Kennedy. Vol. 2's cover illustration boasts Joshua Bell. A terrific series which I highly recommend.