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A collaborator in Sweden
I was, as every, so happy to sit and plot with my friend and collaborator Staffan Storm in Malmö today – here’s a reminder of…
Celebrating Ole Bull – 17th August 2025
Today is the 145th anniversary of the death of Ole Bull. So here’s my playlist, beginning with my reimagining of his lost ‘American Fantasy’, which…
Thoughts on the road – August 2025
August is my quiet time, and for me, quiet involves conversation. The conversations include the talks with friends as we travel across the Midwest of…
Celebrating Paul Pellay’s Birthday – the Astonishing ‘Thesarus…’
Celebrating Paul Pellay’s birthday (two days late!!!). One of my most treasured collaborators – here’s just a sliver of his epic ‘Thesaurus of Violinist Fiendishness’…
People/watching – Spring- Summer 2025
If the art we love is about anything, it is about us. People are a never-ending source of inspiration for me, and I am lost…
The Fall of Icarus – collaboration with the Fine Arts Museums, Brussels
First chance to hear – another of Nigel Clarke’s miniatures inspired by the Bruegel Here’s the wild pastoral, ‘The Fall of Icarus’, a picture, of…
More wonderful music for violin alone !
More from a busy month in the recording studio. Mihailo Trandafilovski’s eloquent response to Joanna Jones wonderful work.Two of my favourite artists, in dialogue (…
In the Studio with the Kreutzer Quartet
This is what we have been up to – first chance to hear Martin Ellerby’s delicate meditation on an East End tragedy, and its memorial…
Thinking about Diego Ortiz
A conversation with Robert Saxton about Diego Ortiz (1510-1576?)this morning – music at its purest, most practical and exquisite; Diego Ortiz was a composer/performer from…
Back to Telemann
Back on the desk – a lifetime’fascination – a moment of simplicity and perfection from Telemann. These cycles are at the heart of what I…
New Music for New College Oxford
First chance to hear Evis Sammoutis latest ‘Nicosia Etude’ (no 6) at New College, Oxford last week (thanks to Tom Metcalf) just a few weeks…
Return to Zagreb – May 2025
Day by day – May 5th – 10th 2025 Zagreb Croatia I first came to play in Zagreb in 1999. That visit was as an…
Letters to young(er) musicians
An occasional rattle bag of response to musicians who write to me Letter to a young musician from the USA 24 4 25 What a…
Robert Saxton Miniatures in the Studio
aw outtakes of a first group miniatures written for me by Robert Saxton. The miniatures are part of Robert and my constant letter-writing and conversation,…
May Day!
What else …?
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.…
Bononcini, Thomas Smith, Jon Boson, go home to Chiswick House
First chance to see – actual footage of the Thos. Smith/Jon Boson violin in the room which we are sure it was made for, in…
Scordatura Stradivari
A sneak peek of what I was doing last week- filming on two Strads and an Amati. A simple scordatura on the ‘Viotti’ Stradivari. NB…
Some Bach on Joachim’s violin
My favourite Bach fugue, on a remarkable violin. For five years, it was my privilege to work on a wonderful violin which had been played…
Nicola Cosimi on a violin by a British maker he admired
The violinist Nicola Cosimi was brought to London by the Duke of Bedford, the euphoniously named Wriothesley Russell. When he returned to Italy, he exported…
A day filming in Chiswick House & Hogarth House
A Welcome to Sweden – from Dag Wirén
A glorious lento from Dag Wirén, which came flooding back to me, as I watched the sunset over The Sound last night here in Sweden…
In memoriam Ilhan Usmanbas(1921-2025).
I got to know this wonderful composer in 2003, when I toured his sonata in Türkiye (with Aaron Shorr) and worked with him. It turned…
‘Futhork for Jan Groth’ for Lund Contemporary
Making the selection of my ‘Futhork for Jan Groth’ which I will play next week at Lund Contemporary. The video is of ‘Secg’ – the…