Elsie's Column
May 2005 - Nigel on my Mind........The things we would never know if it weren’t for Google !!! I give it Nigel to play with and what does it bring back to me but some kind of biographical page where I can find the names of all kinds of famous people and read some biographical notes about them……..you know, the usual thing………….where and when born, names of parents, schools attended, claim to fame………as I said, the usual thing. But this particular page isn’t content with that………..it thinks I want to know something else as well…………..not to put too fine a point on it, it thinks I’m googling Nigel in order to find out what his sexual orientation is !!!! Well, that never entered my head and, in any case, is it any business of mine? But it’s too late now………….I’ve already read what they’ve decided about Nigel and I cannot, in all conscience, conceal it from the rest of you, not now I’ve been enlightened myself. Brace yourselves, everyone, and prepare yourselves for the surprise of your lives…………….Nigel is straight ! Well, thank goodness we have Google to tell us these things……….after all, we couldn’t possibly have figured that out for ourselves, could we, girls ?.................(Huh ????) You’ll all have noticed an addition to Nigel’s repertoire cropping up in concert listings……………I’m referring to a violin concerto by Mlynarski. I know you’re all nodding your heads and looking wise (not fair if you’re Polish !!!) but I’m going to own up and admit that I had never heard of this gentleman and his violin concerto. I suspect that there is at least one benighted soul other than me who has never heard of him either, so the rest of you will just have to skip the rest of this paragraph while I explain to him/her just who Mlynarski is. Well, he’s Emil, to start with, and his dates are 1870 - 1935. He was a Polish violinist, composer and conductor who co-founded the Warsaw Philharmonic and was their first conductor. Their first concert took place in 1901, with Paderewski as soloist and they played Paderewski’s Piano Concerto in A minor and works by Chopin (so far so good…….I’ve heard of these two guys !) , Moniuszko, Noskowski , Stojowski, and Zelenski (oh, well…….can’t win them all, can I ?). His daughter, Aniela, married the pianist Arthur Rubinstein. Yes, all right………I know this is getting to be rather more than you wanted to know about Mlynarski, so I’ll oblige you all and stop it. As far as his violin concerto goes………….well, Google doesn’t know everything…………..in fact, I’m prepared to bet that it doesn’t even know his sexual orientation and, what’s more, judging by his photograph, I can’t help wondering if he even had one !………..Mind you, back then people didn’t know they HAD to have a sexual orientation…………..they just got on with it, did what came naturally and hoped for the best ! In any case, I’ve got as much excitement in my life as I can stand right now, with finding out Nigel’s sexual orientation, thank you, without adding to it !!! One thing I can do is try to convince you that Mlynarski’s name is pronounced ‘mwih-nar-skee’………so if you are at a concert where Nigel plays his violin concerto you can impress everyone else, including Nigel, to pieces by saying his name correctly ! Another thing I can do is let you see his photograph………….look right. Any questions ? Good………next month there will be a test on this material that will count as 30% of your final mark !! Schnell, schneller, Kennedy !!! Let me tell you about Matthias Gans, who reviewed Nigel’s recent concert in Bielefeld. Mr. Gans admits to having had his doubts about Nigel’s original recording of ‘The Four Seasons,’ but notes that what once seemed contrary to musical tradition now sounds historically informed, without having lost its freshness. Well, good ! The thing is, though, that what’s now in question is Nigel’s playing of Bach………..specifically the finale of the double concerto he played in Bielefeld. Mr. Gans thinks he played it at an extreme speed , which made some of the phrasing and accents sound a tad misplaced. The audience, however, either didn’t notice this or, if they did, rather enjoyed it, since when it finished, Nigel asked them, ‘Can we do it faster ?’ to which they gave their unqualified consent……. ‘Fast, faster, Kennedy !’ Whereupon Nigel and the Polish Chamber orchestra repeated the finale, only faster ! Even Mr. Gans had to concede that they gave the music what he called a nervously vibrating energy ! (I apologize for the awkwardness of that phrase……..I always have trouble with German compound words !!!) And then there were the slow parts, where, Mr. Gans tells us, Nigel made his fiddle sing with such unassuming, unselfconscious, ethereal tone that time seemed to stand still. Yes, indeed. The fact of the matter is that if you have a preconceived idea of how the music in question ought to be played, you really are much better off not going to Nigel’s concerts…………stay at home and play your tired old CDs ! Audiences in general have learned to trust Nigel…………he himself told Michael Zölner as much……….. ‘Audiences trust me now. They are like my friends.’ I know………..it isn’t easy to discard one’s prejudices, but the rewards of doing it are incredible. Listen to Nigel with an open mind and, just as important, an open heart…….it’s magic !!! One of the greatest pleasures of editing this website is reading the e-mails people send me after they’ve been to one of Nigel’s concerts, particularly those sent by people who have just heard Nigel play for the first time and have discovered the magic for themselves. Bach and Vivaldi…………Nigel is well on the way to owning Vivaldi, of course……..but it’s interesting to hear his own thoughts about him. This, from a German newspaper, quoted by Teresa Pieschacon Raphael, reviewing Vivaldi II : ‘A somewhat schizophrenic character , many of whose dreams never came true. He was part of an establishment that he hated. The way he trained young girls as musicians, girls who would then be sold in marriage to rich men………..that is almost high class prostitution.’ It’s instructive to ponder on his appraisal of Vivaldi, especially in the light of what he went on to say: ‘In any case, I could live without Vivaldi, but not without Bach. He is the greater, because he’s the more spiritual. Playing Vivaldi is more fun, but if I played him for the next twenty years, I wouldn’t ever play him any better. Bach, yes………some day.’ Which is why some of us, including me, can’t wait for a solo Bach album from Nigel ! Two anecdotes about Nigel......... They are both said to have taken place some time ago now, but I got to read about them just the other day. The first one comes from the ‘Sunday Mirror’………..not the most reliable of sources, but here goes anyway. It concerns the time when Nigel turned up at one of the more prestigious concert halls, where he was due to play that evening, only to be refused admittance......they couldn’t believe that this was the great violinist they were expecting ! What did Nigel do ?.................. roared with laughter and said, ‘You’re right ! I’m an impostor………the real Nigel Kennedy is in London right now !’ The second is reported by Sholto Byrnes in ‘The Independent’ as having happened when Nigel was enjoying himself with his friends and admirers after a concert in Hungary. He left them in response to an urgent call of a personal nature, and inadvertently crossed the border into Romania, where he did what had to be done and then discovered that he was surrounded by armed soldiers……………I think they actually arrested him ! I don’t know how either of these incidents was resolved…….but that doesn’t seem to matter. Even if they’re not true, they warm the cockles of your heart, don’t they ? Are you still playing ‘East meets East ?’ I won’t keep you from it any longer !
Till June. |
 
|
