Alfred Schnittke: Music for Violin and Piano • Roman Mints, violin

The first time I heard Alfred Schnittke’s music was at children’s music school: it was his Suite in the Old Style, a fairly easy piece to play and understand, notably the Minuet. I remember that one of the teachers, hearing me play the Minuet, said: “See, he can write normal music!” At that time I didn’t know what he meant, but a few years later, when I began to take an interest in any dissonant music, the Soviet record label Melodiya started to release LPs of Schnittke’s symphonies conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky. I bought these records, my mother bought them, and I was also given them as birthday presents by my schoolmates. It never occurred to them that, as someone interested in this music, I might already have them. So I wound up with several copies of each record, and in turn gave them to my friends. People began to believe that Schnittke was my favourite composer. And even though that isn’t exactly true, I do still have a particular connexion to his music. Although I stopped buying records of his music long ago, I have always found it easy to play: for me it is simple and clear, and it speaks my language. …

Dance of Shadows • Roman Mints, violin

Sound recording, which caused such a revolution in the performing arts, has also led inexorably to their crisis. Before recordings existed, there were only rare opportunities to hear any given piece, so comparing performances was no easy matter. A contemporary of Brahms’s would have been able to hear his symphonies only a few times during his life. Now anyone can listen to any of Brahms’s symphonies without leaving his house, in hundreds of different versions, with two clicks of a mouse. Before, a person would go to a concert expressly to hear a particular work; now he goes so he can tick off yet another interpretation of a work he has heard a hundred times.…

Violinist Roman Mints on overcoming a career-threatening ganglion

It’s a musician’s worst nightmare to wake up with a pain in his hand. I had devoted the whole of my conscious life from the age of five to a career as a professional violinist; there is nothing else I know how to do. If there was a real problem with my hand, it would literally mean the end of my life. And then one day it appeared – a nagging ache, occasionally turning into a shooting pain.

What did they tell us as children? If it hurts, stop playing immediately, or you’ll only make it worse. Naturally, I stopped practising immediately and got a doctor’s note for college. To give the Royal College of Music administration their due, at this time they were paying particular attention to the problem of what to do with students suffering from hand pain, and they had a list of a phone numbers for osteopaths in Harley Street and Alexander Technique trainers, as well as a consultant specialising in musicians’ injuries and hand injuries, Dr Ian Winspur. …

The Russian violinist on championing the music of fellow countryman, Desyatnikov

Violinist Roman Mints was recently in the somewhat unusual position of being able to ask for the composer’s opinion on a piece he was performing. Leonid Desyatnikov is a major figure in post-World War II Russian music but practically unknown in the West. Mints is detemined to change that. …