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Scala Radio Q & A with violinist Jonian Ilias Kadesha | Music

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YCAT Violinist Kadesha performs Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the London Mozart Players as part of their Classical Club series

Author: Jon JacobPublished 15 hours ago
Last updated 15 hours ago

Young Classical Artist Trust violinist Jonian Ilias Kadesha performs Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the London Mozart Players as part of their Classical Club series this weekend – the final concert in the orchestra’s highly successful streamed concert series. The concert is available online from 7pm on Sunday 15 November.

New subscribers can now access the full eight concert series for £51 using the SCALA51 promotional code. Subscribe now via the London Mozart Players Classical Club website.

Earlier this week we spoke to Jonian about his work as a violinist, the impact of his teacher-father in the early years of the soloist’s development, and his performance of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the London Mozart Players.

Wasn’t your Dad your first violin teacher? Tell us about the impact he had on you

One of his great qualities that he passed on to me, at least to a certain degree, was his discipline, a working ethos of working honestly on a piece, and taking it step by step. At the same time though he was very, he’s always been a very humorous person. He can be very strict but then suddenly there is a burst of joy and laughter, and humor and sarcasm.

I think that that his teaching was in a way very controversial. So that actually was very good for me. I learned from an early age to deal with many, many situations and, and, you know, in music, music itself has that all the time. Music is all about controversies and contrast.

How does a young violinist first approach such an epic work like Beethoven’s Violin Concerto do you think?

It’s definitely not just another work. For almost every violinist I’ve met, regardless of the level regardless of what they do, they all have this incredible appreciation for the piece and they look forward to play it or work on it or perform it. At the same time, it’s one of our biggest fears in a way. I personally feel it sometimes. The more I work on the piece, the worse it gets. Yes, it’s really is epic on so many levels. Technically speaking the music, the depth of it, the idea that of course now it’s such a famous piece, and everyone knows it – all fo that contributes to the epic scale. But one always has to remember that when it was first composer it was such a new approach of writing a concerto. It’s a work where the violin accompanies the orchestra. Or perhaps the violinist is playing in much more in a chamber music way. All these things at the time when Beethoven wrote it were quite new. So yes, it’s just the it’s one of those pieces that as a violinist you have to learn to deal with all your life. Personally started playing it quite early on, I think I was 16 or 17. And actually, I remember my teacher at the time, my Russian teacher was almost against it. He said, ‘My dear, you’re too too young for this.’ But I was a bit stubborn, because I really loved it.

How has your approach to it changed since you first played it as a teenager do you think?

I think is changed dramatically. The time I started practicing this piece, I wasn’t very familiar to the chamber music approach of playing. I wasn’t very experienced playing with other people. And later on when I started playing with a piano trio, that inevitably led to me playing a lot more German music. I think that changed really my life. It changed my life also, in how I approached this concert, because it Beethoven’s Violin Concerto really is essentially, pure German music with an orchestra – a constant dialogue between the violin and the orchestra.

When we attended the recording of your performance with the London Mozart Players we noticed the solo sequences of you playing on your own were unfamiliar from other Beethoven Violin Concerto recordings. Was that new material? It was quite ‘rock and roll.’ We heard Brahms and maybe even a bit of Tchaikovsky in there too. Tell us about that.

You definitely heard Brahms! Right, okay! So ,this cadenza was written by the composer Schnittke. He was always famous for being against the rules. Creating for him was an opportunity to shock people – that was very important to him and, and he was very famous for this.

So, taking different styles and sort of making a collage was something that he did a lot. And that’s what he did here. So the first part in the first movement, the first part of the candenza is all about Beethoven. To a certain degree, it’s quite, it’s quite a traditional cadenza, I would say. Very ‘well mannered’. I find it personally also very tasteful. But then he sort of jumps off the cliff!

The second part then seems to break everything. It’s a very twisted collage of different things, featuring other famous violin concertos by Bartok, Shostakovich, Brahms and Berg. I think, in a way, he’s pointed to them to say, ‘every concerto that came after Beethoven was inspired by Beethoven.

I love it in a way. I guess it’s just a phase. I don’t think I’ll play this cadenza all the time. I definitely want to write my own at some point. I just don’t feel yet completely ready for that.

We also noticed during those cadenzas that the London Mozart Players were smiling a great deal when you were playing those cadenzas – they seemed completely engaged in what you were playing. Were you aware of that?

I was very aware during rehearsals, I actually really try to make a point of demonstrating that I’m in touch especially in this distanced form of rehearsing. You know, when you come in as a soloist and conductor, you really have to make the effort to to be sure to be in touch with every musician while you play, even if it’s just eye contact.

New subscribers can now access the full eight concert series for £51 using the SCALA51 promotional code. Subscribe now via the London Mozart Players Classical Club website**.**

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