Pure harmonies

The cover of Kavakos'and Chinese pianist Yuja Wang's new album.

Chemistry between two artists is like talent, he said. "With talent, you need much less time.

"When the chemistry is not there, time doesn't help you. If you have no talent, you can practice the violin for three lifetimes, (and still) nothing happens."

During his stay in Shanghai, Song Yang, an international a

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ward-winning violinist and music teacher from Shanghai, asked Kavakos for advice for China's young violin students.

He replied that it was important to respect the score and structure. One should try to understand a work of music before putting his emotion in the playing. It is also important to approach a piece from the time of its creation.

"If you look at the manuscript of Beethoven, it is like a war zone. He was fighting with his talent all the time. Brahms was the same," Kavakos told Song, who admires his superb taste for music as well as perfect technique.

"We players are never as good as these great composers, but we try to connect with them ... by understanding the time frame.

"If a musician of today tried to play Beethoven with a little bit of Brahms inside, a little Prokofiev inside ... this is not right to Beethoven."

Kavakos can't understand today when people play Bach in a Romantic way. "Because this is outside the aesthetics of Bach's time ... the same is with Beethoven, Brahms and Hayden."

He says teaching young people to play like this is similar to making a cocktail by combining all the drinks that one likes, and putting them all in a single glass. "It will taste horrible."

The learning process of classical music nowadays is often highly competitive, but Kavakos said this is not right. "Art is not like the 100-meter sprint at the Olympic Games. In art it's important to understand and respect the individuality of another person ... then you can better understand yourself and the music."

The violinist is also not a fan of crossover music, which Kavakos believes "is a crime". "It's a desperate way for people to get famous ... to attract audiences in the wrong way ... It's a desperate commercial solution and it doesn't help.

"Why do Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Shostakovich need help? Are they not good enough? Who is not good enough?"

Presenting classical music in a popular way is like people dressing in costumes for carnivals. "They are not true." Giving this to people who don't know about classical music is "like teaching the wrong information in a classroom", he said.