I was quite young when I heard the Beethoven Violin Concerto for the first time. We had the 1959 recording of David Oistrakh performing with the French National Radio Orchestra under Andre Cluytens and I knew it was an amazing piece, although I didn’t understand what made it so great. I didn’t begin to practise it until I was 16 years old, and after I’d obtained my violin diploma from the Hellenic Conservatory in Athens. I played the Paganini and Sibelius concertos, after concentrating on virtuosic pieces for a few years, although I hadn’t played many concertos by that time. Only then did my teacher Stelios Kafantaris tell me: ‘Now we can look at the Beethoven Violin Concerto.’ He explained that the piece required a completely different approach, and that he didn’t want me to practise it as if for performance: ‘It’s important that you study it now, so that you can grow with it. Then, when you do come to perform it, you’ll already have memories and experience on which to build.’
For me, the Beethoven stood out because there’s a great kind of simplicity to it, yet it has such endless possibilities for expression. The number of ways to interpret the structure and connect the different areas of the piece is amazing. It’s not about how you play; it’s how you think. This is a difficult thing for young players to grasp, because they’re encouraged to add, and add, and add to their playing.
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