Nigel Kennedy Quotes

I hate complacency. I play every gig as if it could be my last, then I enjoy it more than ever.

Why would you want to stand there waving a stick when you could be playing an instrument?

Yes, I mean like you know, having studied with Yehudi Menuhin that is like some direct route into Bach, because he was one of the foremost interpreters of Bach for the violin.

Menuhin was playing Bach on a fantastic spiritual level when he was a teenager.

I see it as my job to try to keep Bach in the mainstream and present his music with, rather than without, its emotional core.

You can’t learn pathos or profundity.

Bach was a top harmonist geezer, which is why the jazz cats love him.

I can think and play stuff in classical music that possibly violinists who didn’t have access to other types of music could never do. It means I’m more flexible within classical music, to be a servant to the composer.

I think Bach is equally a romantic composer because he laid the seeds harmonically for people like Chopin and the great Romantics, Brahms, so it’s difficult to you know all this like labelling and putting – I think Bach is attractive to musicians because he supersedes the labels.

I think Bach is equally a romantic composer because he laid the seeds harmonically for people like Chopin and the great Romantics, Brahms, so its difficult to you know all this like labelling and putting – I think Bach is attractive to musicians because he supersedes the labels.

I’m always improving and I want to get better and never hit a plateau. I find it an amazing adventure.