Whether it’s his hedgehog haircut, Jimi Hendrix headband or the fact he sometimes performs in an Aston Villa kit and kicks footballs into the audience, Nigel Kennedy is a brand unto himself. Labelled by turns a genius and a fool, no one denies this showman can play: the greatest violin virtuoso to come out of Britain, he’s also one of the world’s best-selling classical musicians. This month, the violinist, violist, arranger and composer is coming to Beijing.
Born in Brighton in 1965 to an unusually musical family, Kennedy’s mother kept his cradle under the piano while she taught lessons. By ten he was picking out Fats Waller tunes; by eleven he was enrolled in the Yehudi Menuhin Music School, where he traded in the piano for a violin. Menuhin himself was so impressed, he secretly paid for his protégée’s education. As a teenager, Kennedy switched to Juilliard and studied under Dorothy DeLay (who also taught Itzhak Perlman), but after years listening to jazz under his pillow, he got an offer he couldn’t refuse. Jazz great Stephane Grappelli asked the 16-year-old to play Lincoln Center at his side. Knowing full well that classical record companies were already courting their young charge, Kennedy’s Juilliard professors warned that his jazz debut would sound the death knell for a classical career. Kennedy considered their advice, did a shot of whiskey – and took to the stage.
Fortunately for the music world, the doomsayers were wrong. Kennedy remains a top draw at any concert hall and has introduced a struggling art form to a whole new audience. His Vivaldi’s Four Seasons recording earned him a Guinness Book of World Records entry as the biggest-selling classical CD of all time. But the rebel remains – older, maybe wiser, but just as controversial; musically there’s nothing he won’t try. In 2006, he released Blue Note Sessions, a modern jazz record; he’s also released versions of Kate Bush, The Doors and Jimi Hendrix – Kennedy dreams of doing an entire Hendrix album. The inimitable star has also performed with The Who and Jeff Beck, experimented with East European Jewish klezmer music and is currently collaborating with the Orchestra of Life on a re-imagined Four Seasons, which also involves trip-hop group Massive Attack and features his own piece ‘The Four Elements’.
In the rarefied air of classical music, Kennedy’s unpredictability is a fresh breeze – we can’t help but admire someone who breaks the rules. However, his attitude makes enemies as well. Purists hate his profanity, ‘mockney’ accent and professed love of cannabis. Orchestra administrators baulk at his demands, namely extra rehearsals at their expense and no advance notices. Those who don’t comply find their programmes cancelled or, at least, drastically altered – with probably another public threat to boycott UK stages until orchestral conditions improve.
In the studio, Kennedy records whole works at once to recreate a live atmosphere – mistakes be damned. During one video session, he cut the arm off his jacket so that producers would be forced to use the earlier, longer takes. He is outspoken across the board on a number of topics. Besides being an avowed socialist, Kennedy calls Israel a modern-day apartheid and refuses to perform there until the West Bank barrier comes down. Others, such as impresario David Zeng, who worked with Kennedy at the 2007 Beijing Music Festival, see a touch of the diva. ‘He kept arguing about how big his hotel room was, and what floor it was on,’ says Zeng. ‘Nothing about music.’
Still, his performances are unforgettable. ‘He’s an incomparable communicator,’ writer-broadcaster Norman Lebrecht told Time Out. ‘He reaches out to the audience more than any classical artist of his generation.’ In a world that continues to build barriers, classical music needs more like him. Let’s face it – deep down, everyone loves a rebel. If he happens to be a virtuoso, everybody wins.