Proms 2020, OAE, Royal Albert Hall, review: Nicola Benedetti thrillingly brings out Vivaldi's wild side
★★★★
Despite the absence of fellow star fiddler Alina Ibragimova, this concert of six Baroque concertos proved an evening to savour …
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In Focus: How the violin virtuoso Nicola Benedetti is changing the way we teach music
The violinist Nicola Benedetti speaks to Claire Jackson about virtual teaching, playing Elgar and lobbying the government.
A patchwork of string players waves and smiles at the camera. The participants, aged two to 92, are dotted across the world, from Scotland to Siberia. A cat peers over a music stand as one young musician wrestles with a tricky phrase, trying to emulate the posture demonstrated by the violinist on his phone.
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★★★★★
When Nicola Benedetti came across Elgar’s early, memorable little tune-spinner Salut d’amour, the fledgling violinist was just six. It made her cry. And she has certainly not lost her feeling for the piece, which was featured last month in her YouTube tutorials for young musicians and is given a typically soulful performance on the final track of this incandescent album (a streaming or download-only release at the moment). Yet it took until she was skirting 30 before Benedetti began exploring and playing the album’s big beast, Elgar’s Violin Concerto of 1910, which is emotionally and technically one of the repertoire’s most taxing.
The delay was wise and maturity’s fruits are everywhere in this ardent account, recorded late last year with the London Philharmonic
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Sunday, June 24, 2018 Barbican Hall, London Reviewed by Guy Holloway @ Classical Sourc There is nothing like a sold-out Shostakovich concert, and a queue for returns comprising both the young and the old, to restore one’s faith that we are au fond a healthy society. First up was the First Violin Concerto which, following […]
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The Herald Scotland, Academy of Ancient Music, Queens Hall Edinburgh Keith Bruce Queen’s Hall ★★★★★ ‘the most exquisite playing I have heard from her.’ WHEN violinist Nicola Benedetti joined the RSNO for its dates in Florida last year, it was straight from a US tour with the Venice Baroque Orchestra, and a transition for the […]
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The Times, Academy of Ancient Music, Queens Hall Edinburgh Queen’s Hall ★★★★★ ‘Nicola Benedetti is on such sensational form at present that she could play the Midlothian Yellow Pages and still mesmerise a crowd.’ With due respect to Simon Rattle et al, I will be amazed if the music programme at this year’s Edinburgh International […]
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★★★★★ BENEDETTI ELSCHENBROICH GRYNYUK TRIO (MUSICA VIVA) Acclaimed soloists join forces for a program of musical brilliance and passion. by Ben Wilkie on November 6, 2018 FacebookTwitterEmail|55 Melbourne Recital Centre November 3, 2018 To open Musica Viva’s final concert series for 2018, the Benedetti Elschenbroich Grynyuk Trio explored Richard Strauss’ bellowing, brooding Cello Sonata in F Major, […]
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by Janet Thomson A substantial Suite from Tchaikovsky’s Ballet Sleeping Beauty followed: from the urgent Introduction, through the characterful woodwind of the Lilac Fairy, the grand Adagio, the colourfully descriptive Puss-in-Boots, to the famous Panorama, done full justice, and finally the well-known, vertiginous Waltz. Described as a big sister to all in Sistema Scotland, the […]
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Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti has been awarded a CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for services to music in the 2019 New Year Honours list. The honour is one class below a damehood/knighthood. Benedetti has worked with organisations such as Sistema Scotland and the Nordoff Robbins music therapy charity, and has […]
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By Terry Blain Is there a more daunting challenge for concert violinists than the Chaconne from Bach’s Partita in D minor? Probably not. Its 12-plus minutes of unaccompanied playing leave the soloist with nowhere to hide, and there are slippery slopes to fall off at practically every corner. The Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti made […]
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Usher Hall, Edinburgh Keith Bruce ***** THESE may have been the premiere Scottish performances of the concerto that Wynton Marsalis has written for violinist Nicola Benedetti, but she had already given the home audience a taste of it by way of a little blues encore, and the piece has undergone substantial revision since she played […]
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THERE’S a growing trend for soloists to also direct when playing with smaller scale chamber ensembles, and why not? After all, Mozart did. Leading this performance of two of his violin concertos, Nicola Benedetti was able to enjoy a closer and more intimate rapport with the orchestra. In the Violin Concerto No.3 in G there […]
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Playing with such energy, such synergy and such general camaraderie at the start of a tour must surely pave the way for even greater things to come. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Nicola Benedetti kicked off their European tour at Birmingham Town Hall, ahead of performances in Denmark, Switzerland and Germany. Opening with Mozart’s Third […]
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I am so excited and honoured to announce that I will be performing at the GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony on 26 Jan! It will be live streamed on GRAMMY.com. Can’t wait"!
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Written by journalist Charlotte Garnder, the story shows an in-depth look at her experience with two pieces, Violin Concerto and Fiddle Dance Suite, written for her by jazz supsterstar Wynton Marsalis. The interview highlights the newest recording of these two works, from the origins of the compositions to their tonal colors. Benedetti also discusses how conductor Cristian Macelaru became involved in the process.
Read MoreNicola Benedetti, one of Vancouver’s favourite violinists, returns Sunday to play for the Vancouver Recital Society with two musical friends in tow: cellist Leonard Elschenbroich and pianist Alexei Grynyuk. The Benedetti Elschenbroich Grynyuk Trio offers an extraordinarily rich program at the Vancouver Playhouse on the afternoon of April 8, its Canadian debut. Benedetti was born […]
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TURNING thirty is a landmark for anyone, but for Scotland’s international star violinist Nicola Benedetti it proved a particularly pivotal moment. On the evening before, she performed at the BBC Proms with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Thomas Sondergard, playing the Shostakovich Violin Concerto No 1 that featured on her most recent […]
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Feature: Nicola Benedetti’s Coming of Age The Economist 1843 By Clemency Burton-Hill March 2017 Issue Nicola Benedetti exploded onto the British classical music scene in 2004 after she won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, aged 16, with a blistering performance of Karol Szymanowski’s fiendish first violin concerto. Since then she’s been Female […]
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By Catherine Womack
Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti was 17 when she met American jazz legend Wynton Marsalis. A rising classical star, she was on her own in New York for the first time for a performance at Lincoln Center. “Kathleen Battle sang in the same concert and Elie Wiesel spoke,” she recalls. “Itzhak Perlman was […]
Read Moreby Laurie Niles Marsalis’s “Concerto in D” for violin and orchestra — described as a virtuoso-level mix of American music and its myriad influences — is making its way across the world, with Benede6 front and center. The piece is in four movements: I. Rhapsody, II. Rondo Burlesque, III. Blues, and IV. Hootenanny. Composer […]
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