Showing results for "violin" in Biographies & Memoirs

At seven years old, Min Kym was a prodigy, the youngest ever pupil at the Purcell School of Music. At 11 she won her first international prize. She worked with many violins, waiting for the day she would play 'the one'. At 21 she found it: a rare 1696 Stradivarius, perfectly suited to her build and temperament. Her career soared. She recorded the Brahms concerto, and a world tour was planned. Then, in a train station café, her violin was stolen. In an instant her world collapsed. She descended into a terrifying limbo land, unable to play another note.

In 1935 a young Englishman named Laurie Lee arrived in Spain. He had never been overseas. His idea was to walk through the country, earning money for food by playing his violin in bars and plazas. Nearly a century later, the book Laurie Lee wrote - As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning - inspired Alastair Humphreys. It made him fall in love with Spain - the landscapes and the spirit - and with Laurie's style of travel. Alastair dreamed of retracing Laurie Lee’s footsteps but could never get past the hurdle of being distinctly unmusical. This year, he decided to go anyway.

Franz Schubert, al escucharlo en un concierto, exclamó: "He oído cantar a un ángel". Rossini lo reverenciaba. Liszt igualmente quedó fascinado al escucharlo. Berlioz lo consideró "único en su especie y fue descrito por un dramaturgo vienés como el "Dios del violín". Pese a todo lo anterior, Niccolò Paganini no fue solamente el ídolo de Europa sino que se convirtió en un mito viviente en su época.

The King of Violins is the heartbreaking story of China's most celebrated violin prodigy, Ma Sicong, who composed his first concerto at the age of 12. During his career, this gentle, dignified man composed 57 of the world's best-known symphonies and concertos, and performed in front of hundreds of sold-out audiences across the globe. Chairman Mao Zedong declared Ma Sicong "a national treasure" and nicknamed him "the King of Violins". But Mao's brutal Cultural Revolution distorted the truth of Ma's life and work. Ma and his family made a breathtaking escape to America.