Isabelle Faust

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The 51st episode of the Burning Ambulance podcast features an interview with violinist Isabelle Faust.

Isabelle Faust is from Germany, and has been playing the violin since she was a child. If you've been listening for a while, you know that the overwhelming majority of the guests on this podcast come from a jazz background – the only person I’ve talked to who’s 100 percent from the classical music world was cellist Saeunn Thorsteinsdóttir in episode 40, and I found that conversation so fascinating that I’ve been looking to learn more about that world ever since. So when I started noticing Ms. Faust’s name on a lot of new classical releases, I checked her work out. She’s a fantastic player who covers a very broad range of material – a lot of what she records is by the big name composers, Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Bartok, Schubert, etc. But from what I’ve read, she plays a lot of more modern music in concert, and even premieres new works and has pieces written expressly for her by current composers, so her commitment to new music is very serious and real.

In this interview, we talk about a broad range of subjects, including her early history, some of her more prominent recording projects, including some pieces she’s recorded more than once, and much more. I hope you’ll find it as interesting as I did.

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Music heard in this episode:

Isabelle Faust & Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, "Violin Concerto, Op. 36" (Arnold Schoenberg: Violin Concerto & Verklärte Nacht)

Isabelle Faust & Alexander Melnikov, "Violin Sonata in D Major" (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Sonatas For Fortepiano & Violin Vol. 1)