This February, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center embarks on its annual Winter Festival tradition (February 19–March 8), allowing for deep exploration of a unifying musical idea from multiple perspectives. This year’s theme, Violin Celebration, follows the centuries-long evolution of the beloved instrument’s role in the chamber music repertoire across four concerts.

From Bach to Beethoven showcases the emergence of the violin as the instrument of choice for the defining figures of the Western tradition and foreshadows the virtuosic flair of later generations with Tartini’s Devil’s Trill sonata. In The Age of Romance, works by leading 19th-century composers explore the violin’s potential to imitate the human voice and highlight the importance of performer-composer relationships, notably the collaboration and friendship between Brahms and Joseph Joachim. Violin Visionaries presents four violin-piano duos from the 20th century that push the boundaries of expression through folk influence, bold rhythms, and innovative harmonic language. 

The Winter Festival concludes with Destination: Kreisler, a tribute to one of the greatest violinists of all time, featuring more than a dozen of the Viennese virtuoso’s compositions and arrangements.

Lectures and panels accompany these concerts, spanning topics from the Romantic violin tradition to the role of the violin in today’s musical landscape and beyond. Guests include CMS violinists; prominent contemporary violin maker Samuel Zygmuntowicz (whose instruments are played by many CMS artists); composer and Juilliard’s Dean and Director of the Music Division David Serkin Ludwig; and Amy Biancolli, author of the definitive contemporary biography of Fritz Kreisler.

I had the pleasure of discussing the Winter Festival with acclaimed violinist and frequent CMS artist Aaron Boyd. Throughout the festival, Boyd participates in the lectures and panels as leader and moderator, and performs in the program dedicated to Fritz Kreisler. In demand as a soloist, chamber musician, and lecturer, Boyd is a former member of the Escher String Quartet and a recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. My correspondence with Mr. Boyd is edited here. 

This year’s Winter Festival takes on the ambitious task of showcasing the evolution of violin repertoire from the Baroque era to the 20th century and beyond. Which composers or individual pieces would you list as the most important milestones along this journey?
The brilliance of the programming for this festival is that it incorporates so much of the indispensable repertoire, that selecting a most important milestone proves difficult. I think it’s better to look at the individual concerts as celebrations of the varied and unique expressive strengths of the violin. From Baroque opulence to Romantic lyricism, to modern-age virtuosity—every facet tells an important story.

What is it about the violin that has captivated centuries of composers, performers, and listeners in a way that few other instruments (if any) have done?
We find violin-like instruments throughout the world and in a dazzling array of cultures. Likely the taught string of the hunter’s bow presented a compelling object of fascination while waiting for prey! The violin’s portability, the closeness with which it is held and caressed, and the motion needed to bring it to life all suggest that it fulfills some ancient, atavistic human need.

You will be performing in the fourth concert of the series, titled Destination: Kreisler. In your experience, how would you describe the effect that Fritz Kreisler had on the violin repertoire and on violinists who followed him?
Kreisler was the hero of my youth, and the lodestar of my artistic life. All of my early teachers revered him, heard him, played with him, and even enjoyed in 1948, a luncheon with him. I hung on every word I was ever told about him, and used to dream that my version of heaven would be to play second violin to Kreisler reading Haydn Quartets. Kreisler’s playing changed the course of violin art. He introduced, by way of his hypnotically beautiful sound, an almost erotic sensuality to violin playing, eliminating the dryer, arid Germanic ideal as epitomized by Joseph Joachim, and later, to some degree, Adolf Busch. His compositions augmented the violin repertoire through their exquisite charm and sophistication, rather than the dazzle of Henryk Wieniawski, or the tricks of Niccolò Paganini or Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst. They appear easy, but become nearly impossible when one has the sound of Kreisler’s inimitable playing in mind.

Which of the festival’s concerts or lectures are you most looking forward to, and why?
I should say, my own, of course! But really, this festival is so intelligently designed that it would be impossible to select one particular concert or lecture. I do suspect, though, that the Kreisler-focused concert will manage to bring out all that is best and noble from those who participate. Kreisler’s goodness will, some 60 years after his death, spur us all to our highest and most generous music making. I hope the audience will feel it.

Winter Festival: Violin Celebration performances take place on February 20, 24, 28, and March 8 in Alice Tully Hall. Complementary lectures and panels take place on February 19, March 4, and March 8 in CMS’s Rose Studio, and will also be livestreamed. Please visit ChamberMusicSociety.org for more information.