'I think what Beethoven as a piano player would love about the fiddle, and that shows throughout the string quartets, is a certain ability of singing that only the greatest piano players achieve, and that only with a lot of fantasy and make-believe. What he’s looking for in the concerto is an even more singing quality and a tenderness throughout the piece that is not a trademark of all of his pieces. You’d be surprised to see that most of my part is marked piano, and even pianissimo. For a violin concerto you would assume it would say: come on, go on stage and tell them how big and beautiful you are. So with the first big concerto of the literature, he’s going a very specific way which is not the way, let’s say, of Brahms and Tchaikovsky and many others. He is a very human soul in this piece.'

The LSO International Violin Festival reaches its halfway point on 12 May with a performance of one of the peaks of the violin repertoire. We find out more about soloist Nikolaj Znaider and the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in this blog.

To continue the LSO International Violin Festival Christian Tetzlaff will perform Beethoven's sublime Violin Concerto. We find out more about him, and the concerto he has performed a staggering 280 times, in this blog.

In May 2015, Isabelle Faust made her LSO debut as part of the LSO International Violin Festival. At the time, we were delighted to catch up with her to hear more about her life – and her instrument. Read on to find out more and learn how you can bring Faust's playing into your living room…