David Watkin

David Watkin was awarded both an Instrumental Award and a Choral Scholarship to St Catharine’s College Cambridge, where he read Music whilst also studying the cello with William Pleeth and singing with Kenneth Bowen.

Few other musicians have achieved prominence at the highest level in both period instrument and modern worlds: he is Principal Cello of the English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, and was Principal Cello of the Philharmonia for five years and of Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment before joining the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. “He not only brings that dedicated, scholarly view of playing characteristic of period instrument specialists, but he plays with such huge commitment. He’s a great inspiration to me, especially in Mozart.” (Sir Charles Mackerras, BBC Music Magazine).

David has revived the 18th-century practice of realising figured bass (improvising chordal accompaniments) on the cello and has used it in many recordings, including Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito with Mackerras/SCO. He has written about this for Early Music and about performance practice for Cambridge University Press and The Strad. David is a member of the Eroica Quartet which has astonished critics around the world with its radical performances of the music of the early Romantics. In particular they have worked together with Dr Clive Brown on the expressive implications of bowings and fingerings found in mid-19th century editions. They have performed in major venues throughout Europe and the USA. Their recordings of the complete quartets of Mendelssohn and Schumann, and a Beethoven disc, have received much critical acclaim.

David has been a soloist with OAE at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Carnegie  Hall, New York and has performed the Schumann Concerto with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and ORR at the Lincoln Center, New York, and recently with the SCO.
 
Unaccompanied Bach has taken him all over Europe, from the Palace of Frederick the Great at Potsdam, to the Prague Spring Festival. He has been a guest artist with, among others, Robert Levin, Fredericka von Stade and the Tokyo Quartet. He has made a wide range of recordings including the Vivaldi Cello Sonatas with the King’s Consort (Hyperion) and, with OAE, Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante (Virgin) and (as soloist/director) a Vivaldi Cello Concerto (Linn).

David has given talks and classes and coached at conservatoires all over Europe. He has studied conducting on courses with George Hurst and Jorma Panula. His increasing work as a conductor has included performances of Bach Cantatas with students invited from the combined UK Music Colleges at South
Creake, Norfolk, a Mendelssohn programme at the Royal Academy of Music and works by Beethoven and Brahms with Edinburgh University Chamber Orchestra. He conducted the concerto final of the 2009 Scottish International Double Bass Competition at the RSAMD. He has directed the SCO in concerts throughout Scotland and on tour in Europe, including at St Magnus and City of London
Festivals, and at the Konzerthaus, Vienna. In 2009, he also directed the 20th Anniversary Concert of the Swedish Baroque Orchestra, and conducted the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in performances of Elgar’s Violin Concerto (1st Mov.) and Enescu’s Concert Piece for Viola as part of RSAMD students’ final
assessments.

Future engagements include re-invitations to conduct EUCO, RSAMD, and SCO Scrapers and Tooters, an invitation to conduct Amicus Orchestra, a recording with the Tokyo Quartet, and a return visit to the Library of Congress with the Eroica Quartet.

Photo © Paul Hampton

www.davidwatkin.com