<\/p>
Shakespeare describes seven ages of man. The life of a musician crosses at least five of these. Mewling infant and \u2018sans teeth\u2019 aside, a player\u2019s life takes them from shining-faced schoolboy, sighing lover and quarrelling soldier to wise justice and bespectacled pantaloon. <\/p>
Youth might favour the former of these with fresh muscles and synapses, innocence and ambition, but age makes up for its losses with knowledge, time and understanding. So how do musicians\u2019 perspectives change across\u00a0these different phases?\u00a0<\/p>
In youth, there\u2019s a certain fearlessness. Violinist Leia Zhu is now 17, but was winning competitions by the age of eight and made her London Symphony Orchestra debut at 14. She remembers: \u2018I started very young and loved performing. People asked me, \u201cAre you nervous before you go on stage?\u201d but I responded, \u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d <\/p> ‘I didn\u2019t have any nerves, just adrenaline and excitement. One of my first performances, in Newcastle City Hall, was to 2,000 people. I was more worried about what to do after I played \u2013 I didn\u2019t know anything about concert etiquette. Do I bow, or leave?\u2019<\/p> Edward Dusinberre wrote Beethoven for a Later Age<\/em> about his experience of joining the well-established Tak\u00e1cs Quartet (whom we named as one of the ten best string quartet ensembles of all time<\/a><\/strong>) as leader at the tender age of 26. He remembers the audacity: \u2018When you\u2019re young, to some extent you don\u2019t realise how difficult it all is. <\/p> ‘You\u2019re a bit cocky. You sign up for things. \u201cAbsolutely, let\u2019s record all 15 Schubert<\/a><\/strong> quartets in five consecutive days, no problem. Let\u2019s do it.\u201d I wouldn\u2019t do that now, but it\u2019s good to have some of that sense of adventure and raw courage, which is a little uneducated.\u2019<\/p> He also looks back at the thrill: \u2018What\u2019s wonderful about being young relates to those sensations of wonder and awe when we first discover this extraordinary music. I first learnt the Schubert Quartet in G major in 1996, very early on in the quartet. I was totally daunted, but also in a state of wonderment that something like that existed. As you get older, it\u2019s very important to hang on to those first feelings.\u2019<\/p>‘You\u2019re a bit cocky’<\/h2>