For Isabelle Faust, making music was a family affair. She started playing the violin at age 5, after her father started learning as an amateur.
"He asked me two years later if I would like to do the same thing," Faust said. "I said yes, and I went with him to his teacher."
Her older brother started playing the violin, too, and soon the two were playing in a children's string quartet. "Until I was 15 we did mostly string quartet-playing in our free time every weekend. That was also a fun thing, which we knew already from home because my parents met once a week with friends and played for fun."
It was during that time that Faust got a taste of what being a professional musician was all about. "I think about when I was age 12 or 13, when we also started to win competitions with this little string quartet and play little concerts and see what concert life could be like. I think at that age already I thought this is what I'm going to do if at all possible. Somehow it seems that it's always been clear to me."
Now a professional with a career of her own, Faust has won international recognition for her artistry — particularly her interpretations of contemporary and avant-garde works. Her debut recording, a CD of sonatas by Bela Bartok won the Gramophone "Young Artist of the Year" award. Since then, her recordings of modern composers have continued to garner significant honors.
While Faust champions newer works, she also spends a lot of time with the classical and romantic repertoire. "I try to get a very large horizon for my musical personality. (Defending contemporary music) is just one part of my mission as a violinist."
Faust said she intends to have a large classical and romantic repertoire, so that "you can kind of take it out of your pocket" and then emphasize new pieces to a greater degree later.
When she comes to Salt Lake City, Faust will be playing Dvorak's violin concerto with the Utah Symphony. Dvorak's Symphony No. 6 and Scherzo Capriccioso will also be on the program.
The violin concerto is a piece that Faust says she has been playing since she was 14 or 15, with an interpretation that has changed over the years. She recently released it on a recording with Czech conductor Jiri Belohlavek.
It's a fantastic work, said Faust. "In this piece he somehow succeeds in finding something very serious and combining it with his own unique folklore melodies and dancing and jubilant way of writing music."
When she performs in Salt Lake City, Faust will be playing on the 1704 Stradivarius "Sleeping Beauty." The violin got its name, she said, because it sat dormant in an Italian villa for 150 years. Around 1900, it was taken to an expert in London, who recognized it as a genuine Stradivarius and named it "Sleeping Beauty."
Faust says that it hasn't been played much since that time, either.
She discovered it at a violin dealer's about 10 years ago and said she fell in love immediately. Unable to afford it herself, she found a bank, the Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg, which has purchased it and allows her to play it on loan.
"When I got it, it was almost a new violin," she said, "which is amazing for a Stradivarius of this age. And it really also was an experience, playing on a violin which hadn't really been vibrating yet.
"Every month at the beginning, it was changing, and then every year. Until now, it has been developing its sound and opening up and becoming freer, and that was, of course, a big, big privilege for me to be the one to make it live again."
If you go. . .
What: "Distinctly Dvorak"; Isabelle Faust, violinist; Utah Symphony
Where: de Jong Concert Hall, Brigham Young University, Provo
When: Thursday, 7:30 p.m.
How much: $16
Phone: 801-422-4322
Also. . .
Where: Abravanel Hall, 123 W. South Temple
When: Friday, 8 p.m.
How much: $12-$50
Phone: 888-451-2787
E-mail: rcline@desnews.com