The Strad

September 2025: Editor’s welcome and contents

The Strad

Remembering Ida Haendel: Grande dame of the violin

Following Ida Haendel

Challenge your curiosity and your preconceptions: violinist Hector Scott

How to keep an open mind and avoid reverting to pre-programmed personal responses when learning, teaching and making music

International Violin Competition ‘Premio Paganini’

The competition

Cellist Steffan Morris joins the Castalian Quartet

The Welsh cellist will replace the quartet

Cremona - A place to play

Discover the Cremonese landscape in a curated itinerary from a musical point of view

Sentimental Work: Viktoria Mullova

The Sibelius Violin Concerto played a pivotal part in the Soviet-born violinist

Violist and pedagogue Wieslaw Rekucki has died

The Polish violist passed away following a heart attack on 30 January

String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam cancelled, with call to donate ticket proceeds to artists

The festival, which was due to be held 29 January until 5 February 2022, will not continue due to Covid-19 restrictions upheld in the Netherlands

When Vieuxtemps performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, aged 14, he was hailed as a ‘musical genius’

The recent discovery of another cadenza to the first movement of Beethoven

The freeform style of the Vogtland’s violin tradition

A recent research project using high-resolution CT scans is lifting the lid on the unusual construction methods behind four instruments makers o…