KULTURA / CULTURE 40 | Koncert » Concert hen American virtuoso violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn performs at Belgrade’s Kolarac Hall this October, it will be the first time that the Serbian audience has heard the sounds of the famous “Red Violin”. This New York-based soloist and owner of the RedMendelssohn Stradivari Violinwill make her debut performance in Serbia on 18th October at 8pm in the Great Hall of IlijaM. Kolarac Endowment, with the evening’s programme to include works by Haydn, Beethoven, Gershwin, Elgar and Clara Schumann. The Belgrade concert has been officially entitled “The Red Violin”, after the instrument that Pitcairn’s grandfather secretly bought at a 1990 auction of Christie’s Auction House in London. He succeeded in securing the violin for his talented granddaughter for a price of almost two million dollars. The “Red violin” is so named due to the red-tinted varnish that was used by the famous Antonio Stradivari when he made it in 1720. What happened to the violin for many years after Stradivari made it remains a mystery, though it is known that the family of German composer Felix Mendelssohn was among its owners during the 20th century. Themysterious fate of Stradivari’s violin served as the inspiration behind the 1998 Oscar-winning film The Red Violin. A documentary called The Auction Block was later filmed and featured Pitcairn herself. “I wonder what happened to it during its unknown history – where it was and who possessed it for almost 200 years from 1720 to 1880, how it remained so well preserved and whether Stradivari made it for someone special,” says Elizabeth, speaking for Elevate. What is your story related to that instrument? - My personal story is linked toNovember 1990 at Christie’s Auction House in London, when I first saw and played this violin. I was a few weeks away from turning 17. That was my first trip to London and the I N OCTOB E R AT KOL AR AC Mysterious “Red violin” in Belgrade for the first time American violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn will perform on the famous instrument that inspired the Oscar-winning film The Red Violin first time that my mother, who’d studied the cello at Juilliard, had travelled overseas. That was brave of us, of a mother and daughter who travelled alone and paved the way for ourselves. I’d received special advanced permission from Christie’s to play that violin for 20minutes, and it didn’t bother me that there were many people in the room that day, I immediately connected with the instrument and the sound resonated. How does the fact that you perform on such a famous and expensive instrument make you feel? - I mostly feel grateful to have received this opportunity. The violin is my partner inmy performances and I feel great responsibility to take care of it and one day pass it on to the next owner. Those magical moments on stage appear easy and as though they are achieved effortlessly, there is a loving connection with the audience and an extraordinary experience that feels as though time has stood still. You’ve performed with orchestras from this region previously. What do you expect from Belgrade? - I’ve heard so many wonderful things about the Serbian capital. Given that I’ve already been to most of the neighbouring countries, I’m especially excited that I will now perform in Belgrade and that I will meet people in Serbia. It’s all the more significant for me because I will collaborate withmy dear friends and colleagues fromthe LuzerneMusic Center, Marko Stuparević and Kayla Hermann, and because we will hear Stradivari’s violin in the famous acoustics of Kolarac. That concert hall is like an additional instrument. Which of your favourite places in New York would you recommend? - It isn’t possible to choose only a few! I like to go to Carnegie Hall, the New York Philharmonic, Billy Joel concerts inMadison Square Garden, shopping at Saks, running aroundCentral Parkunder themoonlight with friends, the Metropolitan Opera House; watching The Nutcracker during the time of the holidays at the New York City Ballet, skating in front of Rockefeller Center on Thanksgiving, seeing Van Gogh’s Starry Night at MoMA and Monet’s Garden at SainteAdresse at the Met...
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