Young classical musicians starting out in their careers are sacrificing creativity and individuality and becoming “clone-like”, urged on by music schools teaching a formulaic syllabus, according to violinist Nigel Kennedy.
The world-renowned performer told the Observer that musicians too often lack passion and end up being indistinguishable from one another. “It’s wonderful to hear near-to-perfect playing, but it’s at the expense of perfect communication,” he said.
He added that performances by legendary pianists such as Arthur Rubinstein and Edwin Fischer were each so different. “No one could play Chopin like Rubinstein, or Bach or Beethoven like Fischer. Nowadays it’s so much more clone-like.”
Kennedy, 66, said that audiences end up looking at what performers are wearing or whether or not a string breaks on their instrument as these, he claims, are the only things that distinguish one player from another: “All that people remember are those things, even though the musicians are technically phenomenal.”
Part of the problem lies with music conservatoires that stifle creativity through “overteaching” and a “worship of professors”, Kennedy said. He added that teachers were quite often taking the easy way out and imposing the same technical approach on each student. “Every kid wants to play because of the love of music. But quite often they’ve got that beaten out of them and they’re having to subscribe to a formulaic syllabus. It basically is a brain and heart turn-off.”
Kennedy is the bestselling classical violinist of all time, breaking records with his Vivaldi: The Four Seasons album, which has sold more than 3m copies since its release in 1989. He is known for switching among musical styles, be they classical, jazz or rock.
He was a protege of the virtuoso violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who encouraged such interests, having himself played with Indian musician Ravi Shankar and Stéphane Grappelli, one of the world’s foremost jazz violinists.
Asked about recent criticisms made by conductor Sir Simon Rattle over cuts to classical music by the Arts Council and BBC, Kennedy argued that public subsidy should be shared more evenly with other types of music: “If the classical arts didn’t soak up so much of the Arts Council funding and stood on their own two feet, then there might be a bit more to go round to other forms of art which are equally valid and necessary.”
He added: “How many jazz big bands are there? Music by Duke Ellington or Count Basie is just as good as music by Stravinsky or Bartók. But how many do you see with their own concert hall? If somebody does have a big band, like Jools Holland, it’s very hard to keep them going and to pay for these musicians with no Arts Council support to be travelling around.”
Kennedy was speaking before UK performances in which he will showcase his musical passions: an autumn residency at Ronnie Scott’s in London featuring music by Jimi Hendrix, among others, and Bach concertos in Malvern, Oxford, Saffron Walden and the Barbican, London.
His Bach Now! concerts will be performed with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, whose musicians he calls “the best of the best. There’s such talent in the orchestra that I don’t have to talk a lot. We can just play.”
• Nigel Kennedy Spiritual Connections is at Ronnie Scott’s, London, from 11-14 October. Bach Now! is at the Barbican, London, from 7-14 November
