Archive - Elbow Music

The string wisdom of Alfred Brendel

The legendary pianist, who died on Tuesday, was typically insightful and frank about fashions in string playing

Jun 19 •

May 2025

NEWS A very British tradition – to end

Newark School of Violin Making has turned out some of the world’s finest luthiers, as well as generations of the UK’s important instrument repairers…

May 11 •

The death of renowned violin expert Charles Beare raises questions about how we can know what we know about instruments in the age of data

May 1 •

April 2025

A hundred days on

On 1 January, I committed to the #100daysofpractice challenge – so what happened next?

Apr 16 •

March 2025

Charlie Chaplin and his violin obsession

ARCHIVE The great screen comedian was an accomplished amateur violinist who composed many of his own film scores, which are finally getting the…

Mar 16 •

February 2025

Loving Kreisler

LIBRARY NOTES On the 150th birthday of the legendary violinist Fritz Kreisler, I delve into the archives for some first-person memories of my very…

Feb 2 •

January 2025

Happy birthday, Sir Simon

ARCHIVE On Simon Rattle’s 70th birthday, I look back on five magical days I spent in Berlin in 2018, being conducted by the man himself, as part of a…

Jan 19 •

#100daysofpractice

I’m taking up Hilary Hahn’s challenge of practising the violin every day for the next 100 days – for the second time. Who’s in?

Jan 1 •

December 2024

As we come to the end of 2024, here are a few of the interesting things I've been told by string players across the year...

Dec 31, 2024 •

November 2024

Hello again, Bellowhead, my old friends

My favourite band was back in London Town with their unique brand of infectiously joyful music-making – and they did not disappoint

Nov 20, 2024 •

Interview with György Pauk

ARCHIVE In a 2016 interview, the great violin pedagogue got into the detail of violin playing and teaching, talking about the importance of singing…

Nov 19, 2024 •

October 2024

TwoSet at the Troxy

ARCHIVE As fans of viral violin geeks TwoSet absorb the shock news that the duo is disbanding, I repost my article about how they changed the game for…

Oct 15, 2024 •

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