GEORGE NEIKRUG MEMORIES OF A LEGEND

Editor’s letter

ANGELA LYONS W hen French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras

Contributors

TOMÁS COTIK (Technique, page 80) studied with Ana

SOUNDPOST

Letters, emails, online comments

A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME

Recording Beethoven’s ‘Triple’ Concerto last June allowed French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras to step back into near normality, among colleagues and friends. He tells Pauline Harding about recording at a social distance, the importance of musical ‘family’, and why working with living composers has helped him to find contemporary relevance in music from every era

SECRETS OF THE ‘MESSIAH’

In 2016 the ‘Messiah’ Stradivari was the subject of an extensive CT scanning project. Francesco Piasentini and Gregg Alf examine the resulting data, discovering repair work in the neck, and attempt to determine how it had originally been set

RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME

For Renaud Capuçon, recording Elgar’s Violin Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra and Simon Rattle was a dream come true – and one that he couldn’t allow to be derailed by Covid-19’s lockdown restrictions, as he tells Charlotte Gardner

AVOIDING INSTRUMENT CARNAGE

Luthiers often see the same basic problems when repairing instruments – and most of them could be solved by some simple care and attention from the players themselves. Korinthia Klein presents a simple guide to violin maintenance, without encroaching on the experts’ territory

BEATING THE ODDS

Despite losing the function of the third and fourth fingers of his left hand through focal dystonia and a shoulder injury, violinist Clayton Haslop was determined to continue playing. Here he shares his story

Lost at sea?

More musicians than ever are speaking out about struggles with their mental health, but what support services are available in this time of crisis?

Top lots from the London sales

Despite the problems of Covid-19, the October sales went ahead as planned in the capital. Kevin MacDonald reviews some of the highlights

The big reveal

A celebration of a celebrated violin

Lifelessons

Rohan de Saram

DEFINING RELEVANCE

Classical musicians can feel concerned about their lack of consequence in the ‘real’ world. But, as the pandemic has shown, the art form is needed now more than ever – and it’s up to performers to make the case, writes Andrew Mellor

OBITUARIES

ALEXANDER BUZLOV The Russian i nternational solo c

YCat musicians to give classes in musicianship

COMFORT AND JOY: For the first time, the

JENS NIELSEN FROST

ALL PHOTOS JONAS BUTHLER LINDBJERG Jens Nielsen Frost

Making a partial plaster cast

A useful restoration method that can be used when a full cast is unnecessary

MY SPACE

A peek into lutherie workshops around the world

Making fingerboards green

MAKING MATTERS

SAINT-SAËNS CELLO CONCERTO NO.1

MASTERCLASS

Ricochet

TECHNIQUE

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RECORDINGS

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CONCERTS

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BOOKS

From the ARCHIVE

The weights of a Stradivari violin’s plates are revealed for the first time, although modern readers will likely be left none the wiser

NAREK HAKHNAZARYAN

For the Armenian cellist, Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations allows for incredible freedom of expression – and even has the ability to heal