We had such fun playing with you in Winnipeg. Hope you’ll come back soon and play something we’ve never done before! I didn’t get a chance to mention it when you were here, but I was very interested to see you playing with ear plugs. For years I have always played with a plug in my left ear (being the one closest to the violin). I am very used to it and never really play without it – I even won my audition using it. However, I have received a lot of criticism for this practice so I often try to hide it. I use the ear plug because it seems to me that I can hear my own instrument better in a certain way, and even playing in orchestra I find it very helpful. Anyway, interesting for me to see that you were using ear plugs too – and what fantastic performances they were!

Trevor (I was the short violinist with the messy hair and white framed glasses sitting in the third stand.)

Very good point, Bob, though not really contrary what I am trying to get at: variety in bowing is among the most important things to make a performance interesting and alive, and it is indeed a huge problem that bow technique is not being focussed on very much, it all tends to become one blend, one juicy sound with too much articulation or finesse; music is being made mainly with the right hand, the left hand and its vibrato carries much less responsability.

Part of me wonders if the cello being a secondary instrument relates to cost. When a child first becomes interested in music and the family tries to provide for them, it’s usually a violin (which is inexpensive compared to a cello) or a piano (which, while expensive, a lot of families may already have on hand, being passed down through generations or between relatives). A cello requires a bit more of an outlay, something some families just may not be as willing to indulge in.

Keep aiming for those less-popular concerti though! I know cellist Julie Albers managed to talk the Edmonton Symphony into performing the Kabalevsky Second Concerto, which I absolutely adore and would love to hear performed live sometime in my lifetime.

I have played Betthoven’s Fifth Symphony with 23 different conductors and listened to many recordings by many very knowlegeable conductors,but some recordings of this well-known work I enjoy more,notably Carlos Kleiber with the Vienna Philharmonic.To me music is all about life and its experiences and bringing that to every performance is what music is about to me.Hopefully we will all learn how to do music better than we presently do.