Portrait video Vesko Eschkenazy

'Some days you have a cold, or a jet lag. But even then you must be able to feel your love of the music. That saves the day when you're on stage.'

'My name is Vesko Eschkenazy, concert master of the Concertgebouw Orchestra since January 2000.

I took my first violin lessons when I was four years old. At a music school in Sofia. My grandmother, Violetta, was a great lover of music. Classical music, and the violin in particular. We all had a violin at home. My brother became a violinist too. And a conductor. So we all had violin lessons because she was so keen on us playing. I remember that to this day.

I have very fond memories of my early days with the violin. I think I was 11 when I began playing in a youth orchestra in Sofia, with the amazing maestro Simeonov. I auditioned with him and he said: 'I want you in the first chair, you will be our concert master.' I had no idea what that meant back then. So I was in the first chair and I remember our first concert. It was one of Prokofiev's works, Romeo and Juliet. It has a violin solo, which I had to play. I had rehearsed it and I played it.

So from a very young age I linked that job of concert master – of course it wasn't a job back then – I linked it to solo performances. And so far this has always been the case. When you play a solo, you express your own personality. For me that's the main reason for wanting to also play as a soloist. It allows you to share all your musical ideas with the audience. It also makes me develop as a violinist. Even at my age, funnily enough, with all my years of experience, I'm still developing.

In that way we can keep ourselves fresh. Because you always have to be motivated to carry on. Sometimes you have an off day. As a musician you're not always... we're only human. You don't want to sound like a Robocop every time. You're not invincible. You can't be. Some days you have a cold, or a jet lag. But even then you must be able to feel your love of the music. And that saves the day when you're on stage.

This is a Guarneri del Gesu from 1741. Every time I touch this instrument, I think: How is it possible that they built such instruments then, and not now? There are lots of stories about it. For example about the varnish of this violin. They say it's something exceptional. Nobody knows for sure what was in that varnish. Other stories are about the quality of the wood they used back then. About the harsh winters this wood went through. It rings better because of it, it sounds better as an instrument. That power and the depth of the sound it produces are unsurpassed, to use a nice English word. You won't find it anywhere else.

Every moment I spend playing this instrument is a discovery of new variations in sound. New possibilities of giving more nuance to the notes. I can simply spend days discovering things in this instrument that I hadn't heard before. And if I do it well, I can produce those sounds on stage too for the audience. So I hope I can do that every time.'

*Vesko plays the ‘ex-Silverstein’ Guarneri del Gesù built in 1742. The instrument is owned by a private patron and is specially on loan to him from the Foundation Concertgebouw Orchestra.