Prom 19: Alina Ibragimova plays Bach (31.07.15)

[french frank]

I do think you are ALL very old fashioned in your tastes and views, more like 1715 than 2015!

Nathan Milstein died in 1992. No disrespect whatever to a wonderful violinist - but 2015 he isn't.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I do think you are ALL very old fashioned in your tastes and views, more like 1715 than 2015!

I hope you aren't including yours truly in this. There's evidence to suggest vibrato was common enough in 1715, etc. But it was interesting to hear it played otherwise.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But you guys and gals crease me up, I love it!

Who you trying to kid, Ari? Plenty of creases there already!

[wenotsoira]

Roger must have overseen this year's Proms - the programme has to be fixed years ahead.

Taste: this cannot be applied to matters of intonation or the professional level of competence.

However, if all the professional violinists in the entire world agreed on the imperfect professional standards of a performer, while a majority of non professional, non violinists were admirers, the professional violoinists have to take comfort in the fact that, though a minority, they do know better than your average joe.

But on taste - a work may admit of many interpretations, and performers will always seek to find something new to say. Some, if they know a work well, will prefer one, others another, but criticism should be based on more than personal preference.

Intonation I'm afraid, is a matter of taste. Some people like close thirds and sixths, others less close. There are lots of different tuning methods, so you might want to look these up. (Semi-tones are another issue).

Criticism should be based on technical competence and musical intentions. Whereas one can disagree about musical intentions, technical incompetence is obvious to those professionals who specialise in certain instruments. A lack of a secure technique is counter to tone production and possible musical outcomes.

[wenotsoira]

Who you trying to kid, Ari? Plenty of creases there already!

At my age yes, and I daresay most of you may display a lot of creases.

[wenotsoira]

I hope you aren't including yours truly in this. There's evidence to suggest vibrato was common enough in 1715, etc. But it was interesting to hear it played otherwise.

Well, someone who listened with me (a non string player, but a fine musician) interupted early on, before I had given an opinion, and said that it was dire, and did not want to listen further. So after 10 minutes I turned the TV off. It was great relief.

The lack of vibrato was no problem. It was the lousy sound, bad intonation and unmusical phrasing (or lack of any phrasing) that got me.

[wenotsoira]

Nathan Milstein died in 1992. No disrespect whatever to a wonderful violinist - but 2015 he isn't.

If we had the level of artistry and technical brilliance that the players of the approximate period of 1925 to 1975 displayed we would indeed be lucky. No contemporary violinist comes close, even if some are pretty good. Although I also think this applies to conductors, most other instuments seem to have great performers around and in some supply, especially pianists, cellists and some wind players.

[wenotsoira]

I would say that there is one young player who I have recently discovered and who excites me a lot. Her name is Patricia Kopatchinsjaka. You can her her on Youtube with a superb pianist (Fazil Say) playing the Beethoven Kreutzer sonata. There is also a fine performance of the Stravinsky violin concerto with a German orchestra (very fine too) and she is also featured there somewhere playing unnacompanied Bartok. She has a level of commitment and artistry as well as technical prowess that in formidable. She also uses vibrato artistically and sometimes sparingly, but with excellent sound and intonation. She plays on a Giovanni Francesco Pressenda fiddle of about 1840, and in my opinion sounds better on that instrument than most players these days on Strads or Guarneri old masters.

But then I suppose my opinion is counter to most people on this forum. I can't think why?

[Bryn]

I would say that there is one young player who I have recently discovered and who excites me a lot. Her name is Patricia Kopatchinsjaka. You can her her on Youtube with a superb pianist (Fazil Say) playing the Beethoven Kreutzer sonata. There is also a fine performance of the Stravinsky violin concerto with a German orchestra (very fine too) and she is also featured there somewhere playing unnacompanied Bartok. She has a level of commitment and artistry as well as technical prowess that in formidable. She also uses vibrato artistically and sometimes sparingly, but with excellent sound and intonation. She plays on a Giovanni Francesco Pressenda fiddle of about 1840, and in my opinion sounds better on that instrument than most players these days on Strads or Guarneri old masters.

But then I suppose my opinion is counter to most people on this forum. I can't think why?

Nah, you've most likely just picked up on the generally positive appraisals here of Pat Kop's outstanding musicianship.

Her recording with her dad are well worth seeking out, too.

[wenotsoira]

I find her a very dutiful daughter ...

[ahinton]

I find her a very dutiful daughter ...

I might at times be tempted to wonder if you're Sydney Grew in disguise if I didn't know better...

[wenotsoira]

Sydney and I grew up together ...

P S I thought you did know better ...

[ahinton]

Sydney and I grew up together ...

P S I thought you did know better ...

I just implied that I did know better, did I not? If you did indeed grow up together, that's something with which you alone must come to terms. Neither has anything to do with Alina Ibragimova, fortunately.

[Maclintick]

Strange personal tastes folk have in your world, wenotsoira: like an old maid... well ... a first year student who only just made the grade.

I've heard Alina live ( in a concerto first performance) and frequently via R3. I think her playing is superb, wonderfully in-tune - a necessary quality if a player dispenses with vibrato, a great comand of and insight into "line" and with an electrifying presence. Already a fine player - I see her at the top of her profession in 10 years time.

I did hear these concerts live -- from a seat in the circle, & couldn't disagree more with Ariosto's comments = A pure & engaging sound, INCREDIBLE bow control, faultless intonation, musically alive -- & heard in rapt silence by an attentive audience. ( Yes, I love Milstein, too -- & Grumiaux even more, but in 2015 I'd prefer Alina to many others in these astonishing works )

[ahinton]

I did hear these concerts live -- from a seat in the circle, & couldn't disagree more with Ariosto's comments = A pure & engaging sound, INCREDIBLE bow control, faultless intonation, musically alive -- & heard in rapt silence by an attentive audience. ( Yes, I love Milstein, too -- & Grumiaux even more, but in 2015 I'd prefer Alina to many others in these astonishing works )

Hear, hear! The rapt silence was perhaps what got me as much as anything else, approaching these performances with the gravest of reservations - in no sense about AI herself but about the very idea of having the complete solo Bach violin works being performed in that aircraft hangar of an acoustic before a four-figure audience; I could not believe either how successfully she handled this most absurd of challenges or how silent RAH was other than her playing while she did so.

I too love and respect Milstein, Grumiaux, Oistrakh and - perhaps above all - the utterly magnificent Heifetz; but that's just not the point here.