Practice Diary: violinist Yuri Zhislin

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This article was published in The Strad July 2016 issue

For me, the most challenging moment of everyday practice is the beginning. When my hands are not warmed up or in tune with my ears, it can be hard to remain optimistic, especially for an impatient person like myself. I want everything to happen my way, right here and now, but my hands simply won’t ‘listen’ to me, and the sounds I produce are far from what I want. I have to remind myself that I will only progress by doing focused note-by-note practice.

The most important thing is not to give up, and to realise that only by having a great deal of patience can one achieve that harmony between the head, soul, ears and hands. As I’m writing this article, someone has posted a quote by Itzhak Perlman on Facebook: ‘Practise slowly. Have patience. Don’t despair if you can’t achieve something straight away.’ It is very reassuring to hear these words from such a great maestro.

At the moment I am working on Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no.4 (which I love, despite the crazy, finger-breaking passages in the first and last movements) and Mendelssohn’s ‘Double’ Concerto for violin, piano and strings, which I am playing soon in Poland with pianist Charles Owen. The first part of the task was done last night, when I sat down at my kitchen table, armed with a cup of tea, a pencil, a sharpener, and parts that were clear from markings, so that I could study them as if for the first time. I looked over the scores carefully, bar by bar, to remind myself of as many details as possible and to discover new things: voicings, phrasing, structure, what’s happening in the orchestra, and much more.

Many players do not study the score thoroughly before they start work. Instead they prefer to play immediately, to try to find their own unique vision of the piece. I believe that paying profound attention to the details in the score makes the creative process much more effective and convincing. Only when I feel that I am very familiar with what I believe are the composer’s intentions will I carefully introduce my own ideas.

Today I read through the solo parts without an instrument in my hands, writing comments as I do so. That way, by the time I am ready to pick up my violin again, I have a good general work plan.

When I finally take my violin out of its case, I warm up by playing scales, arpeggios and double-stops in the keys of the pieces – G major and D minor – very slowly, with four notes to a bow; then I play faster, with three octaves to a bow. I try to make sure that the sound stays the same through each note and that I connect the notes to one another smoothly. Left-hand articulation is really important; to help my fingers warm up, I slightly exaggerate the way each one lifts up and drops down again, and I pay close attention to the shifts. They have to be clear, yet not too heavy. This takes me around half an hour.

Next I move on to the pieces. Since I know both the Bach and the Mendelssohn really well and know what I want to do musically, I concentrate on the most difficult passages and runs, making sure that I am comfortable with all the shifts in the slower melodies. To work on the runs, I first play them slowly, in the same way that I play my first scale of the day. Again, I use slightly exaggerated articulation in the left hand, and I concentrate on having total physical freedom in my right arm, without stopping or making sudden sound changes. Gradually, I increase the tempo, a few metronome points at a time.

When I am having trouble with a particular run, I try ‘regrouping’ the notes. For example, when it feels uncomfortable to play the last legato run in the third movement of the Bach, just before the crazy cross-string episode begins, I change the number of notes I play on each up bow by changing bow a note earlier, on the down-beat of the bar, rather than slurring that down-beat into the previous group. It immediately feels more natural; when I return to the original bowing, I find that the problem has gone away (touch wood!). In the slower passages, I work on continuity of sound, paying close attention to the end of each note and producing a continuous vibrato. For the next three hours, I break down every phrase and passage into small sections and work on them until I am completely satisfied.

Yuri Zhislin’s recording with the Russian Virtuosi of Europe, featuring Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings and Souvenir de Florence, is out now on Orchid Classics

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