Playing the violin has shaped Russian musician Ilya Gringolts’ life. He explains to Rebecca Fox about playing good music.
Playing music written five centuries ago with friends in Paris could not make Russian violinist Ilya Gringolts more happy.
At the moment, his favourite music to play is Francois Couperin's Concert Royal No. 3, written in 1722 for the French court of Louis XIV.
''Heavenly music.''
The violinist, who is visiting New Zealand to play with the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra this month and judge the Michael Hill International Violin Competition early next month, enjoys playing such music on historic instruments.
''It is enlightening to play the masterpieces on instruments for which they were written. Only then will you start to comprehend the language.
''None of this is, of course, impossible on a modern-setup instrument, but it is considerably more difficult to emulate.''
However, the violinist is also renowned for seeking out contemporary and new music and has been described by the Financial Times as ''one of the most inspirational violinists of today''.
''I just like to play good music. Whether it is seldom performed or when it was written are factors of little importance to me.''
He has premiered compositions by Peter Maxwell Davies, Augusta Read Thomas, Christophe Bertrand and Michael Jarrell.
''About new music, my feeling is that performers have to give it more of their time. The positive trend is there, but more has to be done.''
In 2008 he founded the Gringolts Quartet, which has performed at the likes of the Salzburg Festival, Lucerne Festival, Menuhin Festival Gstaad and Teatro La Fenice in Venice.
''The quartet is, for me, the ultimate music experience. It's beautifully conceived: four voices, four registers, the magic and order of four-part harmony.
''I've played quartet almost non-stop since I was 18 and can't imagine my life without it.''
The group performs Haydn, Beethoven and Bartok, among others, ''but of course, most of the masterpieces remain unexplored''.
''We try to perform all the good stuff.''
By 2027-28, the quartet should be completing the Beethoven cycle, ''hopefully''.
As a keen chamber musician, Gringolts (34) collaborates with artists such as Yuri Bashmet, David Kadouch, Itamar Golan, Peter Laul, Aleksandar Madzar, Nicolas Altstaedt, Andreas Ottensamer, Antoine Tamestit and Jorg Widmann, and is a regular guest at the festivals in Lucerne, Kuhmo, Verbier, Colmar and Bucharest (the Enescu Festival), as well as at Wigmore Hall, the Serate Musicali in Milan and the St Petersburg Philharmonia.
In between his performance commitments, Gringolts teaches.
He is violin professor at the Zurich Academy of the Arts and violin international fellow at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.
Teaching allows him to learn to verbalise what he knows and also realise what he doesn't.
''That is the beauty of it. I am not particularly interested in my students ''making it'' - although I am happy for them when they do - but I believe that the goal is really the road one travels.''
While in Dunedin he will also hold a masterclass for the University of Otago's violinists.
Gringolts' road began at the ripe age of 5 when he had his first violin lesson.
He spent his first 17 years in St Petersburg, growing up in a family that enjoyed music but were not professionals.
''There was always music in the house ... There was a big LP collection too.''
How he discovered the violin he cannot remember, but his parents took him to music concerts ''very early on'' so he assumes some of them featured the violin.
He was captured by the violin's adaptability.
''It's a synthetic instrument that can do practically anything and fit into any setting.''
After studying violin and composition in St Petersburg with Tatiana Liberova and Jeanna Metallidi, he attended the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied with Itzhak Perlman.
In 1998 he won the International Violin Competition Premio Paganini, becoming the youngest first prize-winner in the history of the competition.
That experience was incredibly stressful, he said.
''I was mostly just happy I got through it.''
He cannot pinpoint a time when he decided the violin was to be his career.
''I never considered alternatives. It was just a thing I did.
''It shaped my life. I was and am still surrounded by the like-minded.''
Gringolts, who is now based in Zurich, spends about 50% of his time travelling with his music.
''It's a love/hate relationship with travel. I do like meeting new people, exploring different cultures and all that - but I like doing it even more with my family, which is rarely possible.''
When he gets some rare spare time on tour, ''it's Netflix and walking'', but when at home he likes to spend time with his children ''when I and they have a moment''.
This trip to New Zealand will be Gringolts' first visit to the south of the South Island.
''I look forward to being in the South Island.''
With the DSO, Gringolts will perform Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No2 in a concert that will also feature Sibelius' Symphony No2 and John Psathas' Luminous, as a tribute to New Zealand Music Month.
The concert will be conducted by Marc Taddei, who is music director for both Orchestra Wellington and California's Vallejo Symphony Orchestra.
Part of Gringolts' southern experience will be as juror for the Michael Hill competition, which will feature 16 young violinists selected from 140 applicants representing 32 nationalities.
Gringolts joins a panel of seven others from around the world.
''I would hope to hear something that would make me sit up and listen. It is for those moments only.''
To see
Sibelius and Prokofiev, Dunedin Town Hall, Saturday 7.30pm.
Masterclass for the violinists of the University of Otago on Sunday at 4pm, DSO Rooms, Hanover Hall.
