MAKING HER MARK

Although she’s only 21, the Spanish violinist María Dueñas is already a rapidly rising star in the musical world. Tom Stewart speaks to the young virtuoso about how she has created her own unique and distinctive voice on the instrument

The Instagram page of 21-year-old Spanish violinist María Dueñas features posts about the records – vinyl only – that inspire her.

Among the likes of Menuhin performing Bruch and Paganini violin concertos and an LP entitled The Art of Maria Callas: 1923–1977, something different catches my eye. It’s Whitney Houston’s self-titled 1985 debut album, featuring tracks including How Will I Know and Saving All My Love for You. Dueñas chose it, she explains, because of Houston’s powerful and immediately identifiable voice. Both are qualities she strives to embody in her own playing. ‘It’s much easier to bring across your personality with your voice than with your instrument,’ she says. ‘But it is possible –

I remember listening to Oistrakh and Heifetz when I was growing up and knowing straight away who was playing.’ Sound, she says, is what really separates one musician from another. ‘You’re not going to make a mark just by playing fast.’

Dueñas has certainly made her mark, and quickly at that. Since winning the Menuhin Competition in 2021, the Granada-born violinist’s star has been firmly in the ascendant. In 2022 she signed an exclusive deal with Deutsche Grammophon and the following year released her first full-length disc, featuring Beethoven’s Violin Concerto alongside music by Kreisler, Saint-Saëns, Spohr, Wieniawski and Ysaÿe. During the past twelve months alone, Dueñas has performed alongside groups including the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Philadelphia Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra.

María Dueñas with the 1710 ‘Camposelice’ Stradivari and bow by André Richaume

CREDIT FELIX BROEDE

‘IT’S MUCH E ASIER TO BRING ACROSS YOUR PERSONALIT Y WITH YOUR VOICE THAN WITH YOUR INSTRUMENT. BUT IT IS POSSIBLE’

Dueñas performs with the LA Phil and Gustavo Dudamel

Dueñas has also established a relationship with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and its chief conductor, Gustavo Dudamel. They are her partners on her new recording, released on Platoon on 18 May – a performance of the violin concerto Altar de cuerda, written for her in 2021 by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz. Dueñas gave the premiere of the piece with the LA Phil in 2022 and will play it alongside the orchestra again in Los Angeles in May, followed by performances at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, the Philharmonie de Paris later that month, and London’s Barbican Centre in June.

‘Altar de cuerda is written with the heart and connects Gabriela’s Mexican heritage with my Spanish roots,’ says Dueñas, explaining how Ortiz took inspiration from the architecture of both countries. The title of the concerto’s first movement, ‘Morisco chilango’ (‘Moorish chilango’), refers to the Islamic heritage of Dueñas’s home city of Granada as well as to Ortiz’s birthplace, Mexico City (whose inhabitants are known as ‘chilangos’). The composer took the buildings of both cities as a starting point for her music. In the second movement, ‘Canto abierto’ (‘Open song’), she evokes the airiness of Mexico’s open chapels (built in the 16th century for indigenous communities reluctant to go inside dark European-style churches) by having the wind and brass play tuned wine glasses. Last comes ‘Maya déco’, which Dueñas says allows her to show her ‘wild side’. ‘I’ve never played anything quite like it before. It’s crazy and chaotic – definitely the most technically challenging movement.’

‘NO ONE WHO ENCOUNTERS DUDAMEL IS LIKELY TO FORGET IT... IT’S HIS ABILIT Y TO COMMUNICATE WHAT HE WANTS IN A TOTALLY NATURAL WAY’

For such a young performer, Dueñas has worked with more than her fair share of top conductors, orchestras and chamber music partners. Dudamel is starrier than most, however, something not lost on Dueñas. ‘No one who encounters him is likely to forget it,’ she says, beaming. ‘Not just the way he understands the music but also his connection with the orchestra and his ability to communicate what he wants in a totally natural way.’ When she first saw Ortiz’s score, Dueñas was struck by the challenges it poses to orchestra and soloist alike. ‘It’s very difficult for us all and, to be honest, I was a bit worried at first because of the huge orchestration and challenging rhythms. But it was no problem for Dudamel and the orchestra – I couldn’t have imagined better partners for the recording. Whenever I play with the LA Phil it feels like a big family; it’s very special. In part, that’s down to Dudamel; he’s such a humble person with a great big heart.

Dueñas (centre) with Gabriela Ortiz and Gustavo Dudamel

TOP PHOTO ROBERT TORRES/LA PHIL. BOTTOM PHOTO DANNY CLINCH/LA PHIL

‘PLAYING MUSIC JUST CAME NATURALLY. NO ONE FORCED ME TO PRACTISE’

'T violin was just one part of my childhood; it wasn’t my whole life,’ says Dueñas, somewhat surprisingly, he given how much she has accomplished on the instrument in just 15 years. Also unusual for someone in her position is the fact that her parents are not musicians. This, she thinks, made for an easier time growing up. ‘If your mum and dad are very musical it can be hard because they will always have some sort of expectation of you, correcting you and not letting you develop your own ways of thinking.’ She had to analyse everything herself, she says, working out how to solve problems on her own. ‘We went to some concerts together. But playing music just came naturally. No one forced me to practise!’

Dueñas aged 15

TOP PHOTO DAVID RUANO. BOTTOM PHOTO DAVID AUSSENHOFFER

When Dueñas was eleven her family took a big risk. She had been offered a place to study with Igor Malinovsky at Dresden’s Carl Maria von Weber Academy of Music, and so she, her parents and two younger sisters left Spain and moved to Germany. The change of country was exciting, she says, and she didn’t realise until much later what a gamble it had been for her family. ‘I could have turned around at any point and said, “Actually, I don’t want to play the violin any more!”,’ she laughs. The eleven-year-old Dueñas, now learning German and adapting to a big cultural shift, was studying at a university alongside fellow students who were seven or more years older than her – while also completing her Spanish school education online in the evenings. ‘At the time, I wasn’t really conscious of what was happening. But when I think about it now, I just think: wow! The whole experience was so enriching for me as an artist and as a person. Without my family I would not be where I am today.’ After two years in Dresden they moved again, this time to Vienna, where Dueñas began studying with Boris Kuschnir both at the city’s Music and Arts University and at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz. ‘It was like starting from nothing all over again,’ she says, but the family once more took the change in its stride. The reward for the upheaval was her new partnership with Kuschnir. It was he, she says, who taught her how to make her own distinctive sound. ‘He told me to give meaning to each note – that the composer wrote them for a reason and it’s our job to make that reason clear.’ Taking this approach allows her to keep her playing varied, she says: ‘It means I can keep focusing on the detail; maybe on different details each time I play. I’m always evolving in that way. Of course, the intonation and other technical aspects have to be there; that’s the basis of everything.’ It’s all about the right hand, she says.

‘FOR ME, THE LEF T HAND – THE VIBRATO – IS MORE OF A COLOUR, A NUANCE. THE SOUND ITSELF IS PRODUCED BY THE BOW’

‘For me, the left hand – the vibrato – is more of a colour, a nuance. The sound itself is produced by the bow. By controlling the speed and the weight you can produce so many different sounds just with the right hand.’

In the age of online streaming, young players have access to a vast array of recordings. This not only provides an educational resource that previous generations could hardly have dreamt of, but also, some critics argue, has led to a homogenisation of playing style and a dearth of true originality.

What does Dueñas make of the supposed trend towards perfection at the expense of personality? ‘It’s not necessarily a bad thing,’ she says, kindly but not altogether convincingly. ‘Maybe it’s just not as important now to make your own sound, but that’s what I want to do.’ It’s the range of sounds, not a single tone quality, that make for the most distinctive voices on the instrument, she explains. ‘On the one hand, it’s aiming for that huge range of voices, developing a different sound for louder and softer playing. On the other, it’s about making each note special.’

Last autumn, Dueñas appeared in Montreal alongside the city’s Orchestre Métropolitain and conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin to perform an almost forgotten concerto by Norwegian composer Johan Halvorsen. The work received bad reviews after its 1909 premiere by Canadian violinist Kathleen Parlow, and Halvorsen withdrew it and ordered all copies of the score and parts to be burnt after his death. Parlow kept hers, however, allowing Dueñas to perform it again some 114 years later. ‘Discovering music like this is a great opportunity for younger players because it allows us to explore repertoire that no one else has touched,’ she says. Canadian director Sofia Bohdanowicz is now turning the concerto’s story into a film featuring a performance by Dueñas, Nézet-Séguin and the Orchestre Métropolitain. From Menuhin Competition winner to film star in just three years: what does Dueñas make of it all? ‘I really enjoy what I do,’ she says. ‘Of course, it’s been difficult – it doesn’t all just appear out of thin air! What is most Dueñas with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin important for me is being able to share music with people, learning new things and exploring more pieces. I still have a long way to go, but I’m really excited to see what happens next.’

TOP PHOTO ALLAN CABRAL. BOTTOM PHOTO COURTESY OF MARÍA DUEÑAS

DUEÑAS’S VIOLINS

Not long after she arrived in Germany, Dueñas was loaned a Nicolò

Gagliano by the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben. The instrument on which she developed her sound and style, it has a brightness and brilliance she says is perfect for the Ortiz Concerto. ‘Its tone has a special shine that matches the playful character of the music.’ Nearly a decade on, she feels at home on the Gagliano but, as she explains, that was not always the case. ‘Getting used to anew instrument can be very hard at the beginning. When I started on the Gagliano I just didn’t know what to do with it, how to make the tone and colours Iwas imagining in my head. It took some time but I found a way of playing that worked and now I’m incredibly happy with how it sounds.’

Dueñas’s other instrument, since 2022, is the 1710 ‘Camposelice’ Stradivari, on generous loan from the Nippon Music Foundation. Moving to the Gagliano as an eleven-year-old was actually easier than adapting to the Stradivari, she says, because back then the Gagliano was the only instrument she had access to. By the time the Stradivari came along, Dueñas had spent almost eight years with the Gagliano and had both violins at her disposal. ‘They’re both amazing instruments but they’re so different from each other,’ she says. ‘The Strad is so dark, and I’m still in the process of seeing what I can do with it.’ She tells me that each responds very differently to the pressure of the bow. ‘I can really give it my all on the Gagliano and it will be fine. The Strad has more volume, but if I press too much it almost has the opposite effect; it sounds much smaller. I have to try harder to achieve lighter, brighter colours.’

‘I can really give it my all on the Gagliano and it will be fine. The Strad has more volume but I have to try harder to achieve lighter, brighter colours’