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Nimrod Borenstein: A composer who likes to think big

Nimrod Borenstein wants his music to bear comparison with Brahms or Mozart. Jessica Duchen met the former child prodigy

November 23, 2017 10:57
Nimrod Borenstein

By

Jessica Duchen,

jessica duchen

4 min read

Not every composer is lucky enough to have a whole CD of his music recorded by one of the world’s most celebrated conductors. For the French-Israeli composer Nimrod Borenstein , the disc by the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy is more than just a dream come true.

“Ashkenazy performed several of my works and said to me afterwards that we should do a CD together,” Borenstein tells me over coffee near his home in Chiswick. “I thought, ‘Great, but perhaps he is just being nice…’” Six months later, Ashkenazy repeated the suggestion, but Borenstein still couldn’t quite believe it.

“Then, a couple of years ago he said again: ‘So, when are we going to do this CD?’ — and I thought OK, maybe I’m being rude and ridiculous.” The resulting recording’s central work is Borenstein’s Violin Concerto, starring the dynamic Greek-Polish virtuoso violinist Irmina Trynkos, Borenstein’s own choice of soloist and already a great champion of his music.

Borenstein started off as a violinist himself. A child prodigy in violin and composition, he had to choose between the two. “When I was about 13, I went to see Daniel Barenboim,” he says, “and he told me: ‘You can’t be both a violinist and a composer — it won’t work.’ I didn’t believe him. But when I was in my early twenties and had to make a living, I quickly realised he was right.