He was lucky that Vanessa Sweeney responded to his talent in one of the competitions at the Kilkenny Music Festival. But then I realised I had a lot of things these technicians hadn’t. If I want to do what Nigel Kennedy does, I need to pull myself together. I was gifted with a very natural way of playing, but not in a technically very advanced manner.” I was just smacked in the face by the standard, and realised I was five years, maybe 10 years behind. I went across to Milan or somewhere on an international masterclass. I had very good facility, so I found things quite easy. For me it was everything music should be." "He was literally having a geg on stage, as the Northerners would say. His own interest in the violin was sparked by seeing Nigel Kennedy playing Monti's Csárdás on TV. When he talks about his older brother (“not the greatest clarinettist in the world” but “A great thinker, a very smart guy”), he says “the way he analysed a concert I did or somebody else did was quite incredible for somebody who doesn’t have huge musical training”. Every reference leads to further information and assessments: the size of the family (which once performed as The Rafter Family), who is the oldest and youngest, which instruments they played, how well they did it, and what their other strengths in life are. ![]() ![]() When I ask him about his background– he comes from a musical family in Co Kilkenny – he talks of the individuals and circumstances, his parents, his siblings, with an almost Balzacian level of detail. When he plays, the music flows out of him as if by instinct alone, as if his heart and not his head is his guide. You wouldn’t think it when you hear him play, but the violinist Patrick Rafter is a highly analytical thinker, with a minute grasp of detail.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |