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March 19, 2007 at 9:55 AM

Alright here it is... the full blog... albeit a couple of days late.

I liked Ilya's performance... however one critic didn't, saying that it was a performance of violin playing as opposed to a performance of Tchaikovsky's music.

For me, it was an interesting interpretation, focussing on different aspects as opposed to the loud and magnificent that has been the norm since Oistrakh. I prefer the loud and magnificent still, however I still appreciate this interpretation for what it is, and would not say that it is a bad interpretation just for being different.

After the concerto, I went out to the stage door to wait for Ilya to come out and sign some signatures. There were a couple of other people waiting. We waited and we waited. The bell started ringing to call people back into the auditorium for the second half. Some of the people waiting gave up, but I didn't... knowing that I wasn't going to see the second half anyway because I was required outside in the middle of the symphony to prepare for handing out flyers for my University. It was paying for my ticket, so I was ok with this.
So I had a look inside when a door opened, and Ilya was there... so I called the girls back (knowing them... they're violinists, and one of them had come to my recital. I consider anyone who came to my recital a friend).

Eventually, he came out, and we got a few signatures. Here's mine:

We also managed to get a group photo:

(That's me, Hannah, Ilya and Sophie. We all seem to be looking in different directions, but oh well. You can't really see how good the suit looks with the violinist.com shirt, I'll have to post a better pic soon - it really does look smart, and I did get a few comments about it)
And then I told Ilya to get back on Violinist.com - he responded "Ahh, yea, one of those things" - which I assume to mean that he'll get back to us when he's not so busy.

The girls had also been closer to the stage than me, so after the concert, they went up to where he was performing and grabbed the bow hairs that Ilya had broken during the Tchaikovsky. They gave me one of them:

Now apparently, that's just slightly strange... apparently there's something in Notes on a Scandal that relates to that being strange, but I wouldn't know because I haven't seen it. Anyway I don't consider myself as strange, because I wasn't actually the one who collected it.

If I had, would I be as crazy as Bram?

That's really one of the stupidest reviews I've ever read.
I agree Jim, I'm not really a fan of Mark Coughlan's reviews... but unfortunately he has the gig for that newspaper. THe Australian has the best arts coverage - but I like the reviews of one Neville Cohn better... but he writes with The West Australian, and I wasn't able to find any review from that paper available online. If i find one, I shall publish a link to it.
Thanks for the review and I'm glad you wore the V.com shirt! :) Love the picture of the bow hair...but mate, you went WAY over the 50K picture size limit there!
No, no. You would NOT have been as crazy as Bram. He came to my house randomly when I was in Germany. It was great to meet him, though.

Anyway, it's great you got to see Ilya in concert! I really enjoyed reading about it :) I'll try to see him one of these days if I can find a darn touring schedule...