I have previously written about Russian violinist Alina Ibragimova, and it is time that we explore what she has been doing. Last time I posted about her, we focused on her then new recording of the Mozart violin and piano and violin sonatas.
One fact emerged rapidly from my news research, and that is that she married a music critic back in 2015. Her husband’s name is Tom Service.
Alina was trained at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Britain, and the music of Bach occupies a large part of her focus and attention. She was quoted as explaining that:
“When I was about 15, I started on Bach feeling I was after a certain sound, but I couldn’t achieve it, because it’s not only about not using vibrato. It’s also about what you do with your bow – indeed, mostly about that. It took me a while. I enjoy the purity of sound without vibrato; I like the resonance of the violin without adding vibrato. The most difficult part was to balance the personal emotions with the structure and grandeur of the works. That I achieved by simply playing and playing and playing – there was no way round it. I had some baroque violin lessons at college, which helped. But I found it hard at first…”
Let us listen to Alina Ibragimova as she plays the music of Bach, as recorded by radio station WQXR:
