May, 2020

Pyero Talone
Masterclass Summary #3
Benjamin Zander with Yoojin Jang (violin)
Boston Public Library, Benjamin Zander’s “Interpretations Of Music: Lessons For Life”
series
https://youtu.be/rB_G7CkPDes
Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto (first movement)

Performance Observations (Yoojin Jang, violin and Dina Vainshtein, piano)

 The performer is extremely virtuosic and musical.

 Incredible sense of pitch and articulation
 Adapts very fast to everything that Zander tells her

Teacher Commentary (Benjamin Zander)

 Asks her what is unusual about the cadenza (it’s in the middle, before the
recapitulation)
 “When I was your age, playing of this kind was extremely unusual, now it’s
becoming more and more common”
 Points out that she missed the first part of the masterclass session, and that she
shouldn`t worry so much: “You weren`t here in the first session and I know what
you were doing: practicing. You need practicing like New York needs more
traffic”
 He is not convinced that it`s necessary to play this with multiple tempi, as she and
many other violinists do on this movement. When Mendelssohn goes to the
second theme, he actually writes slower note values.
 Points out that Mendelssohn was not really a romantic composer, he didn’t like
the music of composers such as Wagner and Berlioz, and composed in classical
structures
 Asks her is she remembers what Italian title Mendelssohn wrote in the beginning
of the piece (Allegro molto appassionato, “with no commas”)
 You can have a more appassionato feeling by playing more allegro molto
 “It`s your job to get the orchestra, not the conductor’s”
 Asks her to be more clear on where to use heavy and light bows and sings to
demonstrate