Nigel Kennedy Plays Solo Bach at Royal Albert Hall

“One composer – one performer” promised the Radio 3 announcer before Nigel Kennedy’s late-night Bach recital, though a glance at the extra stools and instruments on the candlelit stage suggested something else was afoot.

Read two articles about Nigel Kennedy’s recent appearance at Royal Albert Hall. The star violinist recently played a knockout Prom performance of solo Bach, although that’s only part of the story. Read on to learn his opinions on the interpretation of Bach, on conductors and the recording industry, and his future projects.

“It’s very natural music,” he explains with feeling. “Bach’s very philosophical, very spiritual. And it’s bare-bones music. There are no colleagues to hide behind, it’s just the violin and the player and the audience.”

He has clearly been imagining what tomorrow will be like. “I saw that documentary on Dylan in the Sixties and he got up in the Albert Hall and played on his own, just him and his guitar and a spotlight, and I thought, ‘Fucking hell, that takes some bollocks to do that shit.'”

READ THE FULL ARTICLES!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/aug/07/prom-31-nigel-kennedy-review

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music/article-23976025-nigel-kennedy-on-bach-bob-and-that-tory-mp.do