February 2012

Phrasing - Is it part of your violinistic world?

February 18, 2012 18:15

I'm thinking back to my student days when I studied with many eminent violin teachers including Raphael Bronstein, Dorothy Delay and William Kroll. To the best of my recollection, not one of them ever dealt with the topic of phrasing -- well, perhaps a passing remark or two, but nothing in a consistent, ongoing, manner. When I joined a chamber music class with Leonard Shure it was a revelation. He was a student of Schnabel and was obsessive about the Schnabel approach to phrasing --- and now it goes to HERE, and now it goes to HERE, and now it goes all the way to HERE!! One of my fellow students at Mannes was a young kid named Murray Perahia. I think I learned more about phrasing from him than from anybody else. At any rate, phrasing seems to be a much neglected topic these days.
I'm wondering what your experience has been. Is phrasing a frequent topic in your lessons (as a student or as a teacher.) And what kind of approach have you learned/taught?

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