Double date in Birmingham for violinist Isabelle Faust

Apr 12 2010 By Christopher Morley

Christopher Morley speaks to the German violinist Isabelle Faust ahead of a performance in Birmingham

The German violinist Isabelle Faust makes a welcome return to Symphony Hall next week, appearing twice with the CBSO in the greatest of all violin concertos – that by Beethoven.

Success in competitions brought her to public notice, and I recently asked her from her Berlin home, how important for a young performer is the exposure of being in competitions?

“That’s a difficult question. I did feel very differently about the two competitions I participated in – and which both, thank God, I won,” says the 28-year-old Faust.

“The first one, I think, was extremely important for me because of the simple fact of me having played, during the five years previously, as a second violinist in a young string quartet.

“For me, it was very surprising to see that on the international solo level I was actually competing quite well. That opened some orchestra solo-playing doors, that was very new to me, and without this competition I think I probably wouldn’t have found this way to go.

“Until then I had been a chamber-music player, inside, inner voice, which I think was a fantastic treasure for my solo playing now, because I think I probably have a quite different approach to solo concerti than other young musicians who have never done chamber-music that intensely.

“Then I won the Paganini Competition much later. I was actually hesitating a lot to do that competition, and a lot of friends told me not to do it, because I had by that time a sort of career beginning.

“They were worried because in competitions you need a lot of luck, even if you play well.

“It always depends on the taste of the jury, and on other not so nice things – ‘politics’. You can also have a bad day, of course, so people told me you might ruin a bit of your career.”

Isabelle says she is not convinced that competitions are absolutely necessary but believes they can open some doors if you’re completely unknown, especially if you are a young musician.

“Somehow you have to make yourself known to the public, and through that competition you can make yourself known as someone who is always playing very well, perfectly and technically, and win all the competitions around, but never actually have the courage and the musical depth to really have a nice musical life,” she says.

We go on to discuss the image industry, the machinery whereby so many young performers are pushed in front of the public as a commercial commodity.

“I do think that’s a general characteristic nowadays,” says Faust. “Maybe more than in former years.

“It’s a lot about being glamorous onstage, being beautiful or being extrovert, or just having somebody behind you, a record-label or a huge agency to push you and force you to do everything immediately and in a very spectacular way.

“And I don’t think at all that that produces a really profound musician in the end.