Virtuoso Voices - Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg (No Way Sibelius)

Did you know that composer Jean Sibelius was also a violinist? Well, not a good one, according to violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. And that explains, she says, why the piece is so difficult and awkward to play. And yet, the rewards of mastering those difficulties are all worth it in the end, so Salerno-Sonnenberg does what's necessary to bring it off. Use this clip to enhance your introduction of Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg playing the Sibelius Violin Concerto. (EMI Classics 54855)

There are two different Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg Clips on PRX that talk about the Sibelius Violin Concerto.

SUGGESTED HOST INTRO Violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg (NAH-jzha sah LAIR-no SON-nen-burg) is a "no holds barred" musician, as you'll hear in a moment. That carries over to other aspects of her life. She's not known to be soft spoken, especially when it comes to the Sibelius Violin Concerto.

CLIP TRANSCRIPT (Stations Please Note: Language Advisory) "The piece is impossibly hard technically. He was a violinist who I think was not a very good violinist therefore wrote, this is my opinion, wrote a violin concerto that nobody could play. You know just for spite, because he couldn't play himself. It's beyond awkward, the last movement is ridiculously, unnecessarily awkward. But the reward is spectacular and so you do what you must do to get the piece learned and to play it accurately, and I think there was no way, there is no way in hell that Sibelius could have played this concerto. There's no way."

SUGGESTED HOST OUTRO Violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg (NAH-jzha sah LAIR-no SON-nen-burg). This is a piece that she CAN play. The Sibelius Violin Concerto. She's joined by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson-Thomas.

(To download a .txt file of this suggested copy, look under the "Additional Files" for this piece.)


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