Pat Kop

[Barbirollians]

A partly fascinating and partly irritating interview with Pat Kop in Gramophone today about her new recording.

Jurowski apparently refuses to conduct the Tchaikovsky Concerto with her . Also she seems to be channelling the younger Nigel Kennedy by whinging about playing the music of dead composers .

[pastoralguy]

Imho, she is one of the most interesting violinists before the public today. Her violinistic ability is nothing short of phenomenal coupled to the ability to make old 'warhorses' sound new and spontaneous. I don't like everything she does but I am aware of a probing and a highly refreshing ability to take nothing for granted. No 'going through the motions' for this lady!

I'm not sure comparing her to Nigel Kennedy is really a fair comparison since she doesn't dabble in 'pseudo jazz' nor confuse being an artist with being an entertainer. I no longer have much respect for Kennedy despite his playing being a major influence on my own extremely modest musical accompaniments.

Returning to Pat Kop, I find her performances and recordings to be stimulating and infuriating at the same time. (Reminding me of Glenn Gould perhaps). At the end of the day, no one is forcing anyone to go to her concerts, buy her cds or watch her fascinating YouTube videos. Those who do, will be faced with an artist whose not afraid to be original and, in these days of Asian sound alike 'clones', this can only be a good thing.

[Tony Halstead]

A partly fascinating and partly irritating interview with Pat Kop in Gramophone today about her new recording.

Jurowski apparently refuses to conduct the Tchaikovsky Concerto with her . Also she seems to be channelling the younger Nigel Kennedy by whinging about playing the music of dead composers .

I wonder whether Jurowski's stance is a musical one or a political one?

[Barbirollians]

Imho, she is one of the most interesting violinists before the public today. Her violinistic ability is nothing short of phenomenal coupled to the ability to make old 'warhorses' sound new and spontaneous. I don't like everything she does but I am aware of a probing and a highly refreshing ability to take nothing for granted. No 'going through the motions' for this lady!

I'm not sure comparing her to Nigel Kennedy is really a fair comparison since she doesn't dabble in 'pseudo jazz' nor confuse being an artist with being an entertainer. I no longer have much respect for Kennedy despite his playing being a major influence on my own extremely modest musical accompaniments.

Returning to Pat Kop, I find her performances and recordings to be stimulating and infuriating at the same time. (Reminding me of Glenn Gould perhaps). At the end of the day, no one is forcing anyone to go to her concerts, buy her cds or watch her fascinating YouTube videos. Those who do, will be faced with an artist whose not afraid to be original and, in these days of Asian sound alike 'clones', this can only be a good thing.

I agree with your assessment of her as a performer I found her Bartok 2 sensational and her Beethoven infuriating . This not wanting to play works by dead composers is exactly what Kennedy was saying for very similar reasons . Apparently, she is to be indulged in this at the Aldeburgh Festival this summer .

[Barbirollians]

I wonder whether Jurowski's stance is a musical one or a political one?

Musical apparently as he is a pal of hers otherwise it seems and conducted her recording of the Stravinsky and Prokofiev 2 .

[Stanfordian]

Pat Kop's new release 'Deux' on Alpha Classics is excellent.

Bartok Violin Sonata No. 2
Poulenc Violin Sonata
Ravel Tzigane
Dohnányi Waltz for Coppélia

with Polina Leschenko (piano)

I'm not really interested in her views on this and that. How any people buy her records because of her views. She's a performer and I'm more interested in her playing.

[ahinton]

Refusing as a matter of principle to perform works by dead composers is not only very narrow minded but also fraught with a certain risk; supposing, for example, that Pat Kop (undoubtedly a fine and exciting violinist when at her best), had been engaged in 2012 to prepare and perform Carter's Concerto the following year - would she have cancelled?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Refusing as a matter of principle to perform works by dead composers

This is a bit different from the OP's "whinging about" doing this - and, judging from Stanf's list of the works on her latest release, it seems more like putting out the bins: there might well be "whinging", but it's still necessary and still gets done.

[Bryn]

Refusing as a matter of principle to perform works by dead composers is not only very narrow minded but also fraught with a certain risk; supposing, for example, that Pat Kop (undoubtedly a fine and exciting violinist when at her best), had been engaged in 2012 to prepare and perform Carter's Concerto the following year - would she have cancelled?

[ahinton]

This is a bit different from the OP's "whinging about" doing this - and, judging from Stanf's list of the works on her latest release, it seems more like putting out the bins: there might well be "whinging", but it's still necessary and still gets done.

Indeed.

[ahinton]

Quoi?...

[teamsaint]

It would be interesting to see an actual quote concerning the "whingeing".

I have seen her perform twice, and on both occasions the composer of the Concerto was definitely no longer with us.

i would think that, as usual, money talks.

[Bryn]

Quoi?...

Never mind Carter, what about her willingness to record the Tchaikovsky, admittedly in a somewhat wayward manner and to decidedly mixed reviews. Also, Ligeti and Bartok do not seem to be counted among the dead for her. I must get down to W H Smug to check out that she actually had to say about dead composers.

[ahinton]

Never mind Carter, what about her willingness to record the Tchaikovsky, admittedly in a somewhat wayward manner and to decidedly mixed reviews. Also, Ligeti and Bartok do not seem to be counted among the dead for her. I must get down to W H Smug to check out that she actually had to say about dead composers.

Fair comment but, when making the remark that I did about not performing dead composers' works, I was referring to that principle rather than to any individual performer; even though Pat Kop is the thread topic, I don't know exactly what she said either and so I simply responded to the idea of doing this.

In their early days especially, the Arditti Quartet used to play very few works by dead composers and, notwithstanding my acceptance that, unlike most such ensembles, they had to spend considerable amounts of time addressing new playing techniques, notational conventions and the like, I did wonder whether this was a good idea, not least because the string quartet is such a long-standing and enduring ensemble.

[Bryn]

Fair comment but, when makimng the remark that I did about not performing dead composers' works, I was referring to that principle rather than to any individual performer; even though Pat Kop is the thread topic, I don't know exactlyt what she said either and so I simply responded to the idea of doing this.

In their early days especially, the Arditti Quartet used to play very few works by dead composers and, notwithstanding my acceptance that, unlike most such ensembles, they had to spend considerable amounts of time addressing new playing techniques, notational conventions and the like, I did wonder whether this was a good idea, not least because the string quartet is such a long-standing and enduring ensemble.

O.k. One of the first Arditti recordings I bought, by the way, included some long dead guy's Grosse Fuge.