最近買了他的best， 愛不釋耳，我最喜歡的當今小提琴家Maxim Vengerov 和Joshua Bell，Joshua 的音樂會一有就去，月底已訂好，而Vegerov據說都不要摸琴了，想當指揮，他的同胞中有不少原來是鋼琴家，後來成著名指揮，Maxim， 等我聽你一場音樂會在去當指揮好不好？
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http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article3666430.ece
Maxim Vengerov says he is putting down the violin, his 'mother tongue'
He may be rated the world’s finest violinist but right now Maxim Vengerov just wants to conduct
It has been a long and conspicuous silence. The last time that Maxim Vengerov played his priceless Stradivarius in the UK was a contribution to a Maxim & Friends concert at the Bath Festival last May. It was meant to have been a full recital, until the recurrence of a troublesome shoulder injury. It was the same injury that had already reduced a previous engagement with the UBS Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra to a solitary Mozart concerto – prompting a flurry of refunds and an apology from the Barbican in London.
Then things got more serious. After promising us the UK premiere of Benjamin Yusupov’s unorthodox Viola Tango Rock Concerto, Vengerov withdrew from the Proms in August, taking the piece with him. A recital at the Wigmore Hall in October was quietly dropped. And around the world, the Russian widely considered the planet’s finest violinist (he is certainly the most highly paid, reportedly charging £20,000 per recital) has removed himself from the winter and spring programmes of the Carnegie Hall, the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Budapest Festival. In fact, he hasn’t played a single concert since June.
The good news is that the shoulder has now mended. “I feel sad about disappointing audiences and particularly the concerts I had to cancel, which were due to my shoulder injury,” he says. “I’ve stopped having treatment and am now basically fine.”
However, the bad news for those who are used to hearing the 33-year-old work his way through the standard violin repertoire with all his trademark brilliance is that they may have to get used to a different maxim from Maxim: a change is as good as a rest. “Having had the enforced rest, I took on new things – my music school in Migdal [Israel] and my conducting. Rather than disappointing audiences I would say that if I stop doing these other projects now, I will be disappointing myself. From this point on, I have decided to leave my violin to rest for some time, in order to give my undivided attention to conducting.”
He insists that he doesn’t miss the applause. Nor does he want to go back to “being on a wheel in a box, like a hamster. I have to get off that wheel to see if I’m capable of doing other things. I will play again. But I can’t tell you when that will be.”
And so when Vengerov returns to the UK next Friday for the Yehudi Menuhin violin competition in Cardiff (he is a judge), it will be as a conductor, accompanying another violin star (Joshua Bell) rather than taking centre stage. It’s not injury that has led to the substitution – to Vengerov’s mild irritation, this is still the official story – but simply the desire to try new things.
Once again he says: “The violin is my mother tongue. I will always come back to it, but have no plans to get back on the treadmill. There comes a time when you need to stop flying all over the world. When the opportunity came for me to conduct Josh at the Menuhin competition instead of playing, I was really excited by the idea.”
Those with longish memories would be forgiven for suffering some déjà vu. After all, 2005 was supposed to be Vengerov’s gap year from playing the violin. “I had wanted to do so many things in my sabbatical year. But the year I turned 30 was one of the busiest periods of my career. Apart from working on the Tango Viola concerto and filming The South Bank Show, I played more than 50 concerts. But in the quieter moments I began to see what it might be like to have some time to think about what I want to do and other musical challenges.” The success of the South Bank Showfilm, Living the Dream,has also led him to work with its producers on a second multimedia project, Maxim’s Musical Tales, which builds on his enthusiasm for musical education.
He says it’s time for him to “give something back”. Conducting is one way of doing that – partly because it follows the example of the inspirational Mstislav Rostropovich, the cellist and conductor who died last year. “Slava was an incredible example of a musician and human being. He had a profound influence on my music and my life. Because of Slava – what he did for me – I am very aware of passing on that parcel of knowledge and experience.”
Hence Vengerov has mostly conducted youth ensembles, such as the Verbier players with whom he spent last year conducting Mozart. “It wasn't an easy time, but it was a fantastic experience. Mozart was the one leading all of us.”
He also admits that he never had the freedom to be a teenager or care-free twentysomething. Working with the young Verbier musicians gave him some of that back. “Things I’ve missed out on – like going out drinking and just having fun. We practically became one big family.”
But he is adamant that his prodigious career – he was playing publicly in his home town of Novosibirsk, Siberia, from the age of 5 – hasn’t led to burnout and isn’t the reason why he is calling a prolonged time out. “Growing up in Siberia, I was blessed,” he says. “It was a hard childhood and I had to make this incredible transformation to the West [to Israel] – the dream of my parents and many of their generation. But hardship was only one side of the coin. Arriving from my financially underprivileged society, I saw the other side and how much my experience had given me in terms of access to culture and music. I had incredible support from my parents and saw how music gave us a light out of the darkness. It allowed us to escape from everyday life.”
It is memories such as this that will inform a book that Vengerov is preparing about the lessons he has learnt as a musician and how they can be applied to other professions. “It’s a way to live your life.”
Vengerov is a former Unicef ambassador, and back when he was performing 80 concerts a year, some were always given in aid of charities. Now his other great project is his music school for gifted musicians in Migdal, where he has a house. “Migdal, near Tiberias, isn’t a wealthy community. Many Israelis don’t even know where it is, though it’s mentioned in the Bible.”
Vengerov’s school has 25 violin students aged 4 to 12. Describing the children, his eyes light up. “I want them to learn to dance – to become real ambassadors of music.” He tells me about an overweight boy of 12. “He plays brilliantly, but when he first came to us he was so miserable. Kids at his school teased him. Now he has somewhere he can explore his passion for music and his life has changed.”
Vengerov saves his personal news for last – he has a “lovely girlfriend”, the trumpeter Alison Balsom, beloved of Classic FM and a regular fixture on the British concert circuit. They met last year on a cruise with the English Chamber Orchestra, and have just come back from a holiday in Israel. “Alison has this wonderful down-to-earth Englishness. She’s very modest and practical. I’ve gained so much from being with her. We don’t practise in the same building but when she plays the trumpet, I close my eyes, and it sounds like a violin or a singing voice. She’s a great soul – open to life and full of life. She really inspires me.”
Officially, Vengerov is forbidden to ski in case he damages his hands. “But Alison just took me to Gstaad. I started off on the bunny slope and ended up skiing with her down the red run. It was frightening but I loved it. When I was 30 I wanted to ride a Harley Davidson, now all I want to do is ski!”
Perhaps romance has played its part in Vengerov’s radical new life plan. Either way, his workload isn’t going to drop. “I have to give 100 per cent of myself to the school and to conducting. People who know me understand that once I take on something, I do it to the absolute best of my ability.”
That said, his advice for the new generation of Vengerovs who will try their luck in Cardiff is less driven: “Someone has to win, but music is not a sport. Don’t think about the other musicians, just play the best you can – from your heart.”
