Elena Urioste
A violinist with a small, warm sound who would rather be heard properly than be heard loudly.
- Born
- 1986
- Based
- Wales
- Hear them at
- City Halls, Glasgow
How Elena plays.
Small sound, long line
She does not chase volume. Phrases carry because they are shaped, not because they are pushed.
Rubato you can follow
The pulling-around is audible and deliberate rather than decorative, so the orchestra can move with her.
Programmes with a stranger in them
Expect a Coleridge-Taylor or a Price alongside the Brahms, and expect it to be the piece you talk about afterwards.
The short version.
Urioste plays a 1706 Alessandro Gagliano with a tone that is closer to a voice than a trumpet. In a big room she does not force it, which means the balance in the hall matters more for her concerts than for most — a seat in the mid-stalls is worth paying for.
She spent the pandemic making short films of unfamiliar repertoire from a living room in Wales, and it left a mark: her programmes still tend to put something you have never heard next to something you have heard too often.
Coming to Scotland.
- Sat 17 Oct19:30Dvořák’s New World SymphonyBBC SSOBruch before the intervalGlasgow Royal Concert HallTickets
Who else does this.
Chosen for a stated reason, not because other people clicked both.
- Violinist
Nicola Benedetti
A bigger sound and a bigger room, but the same instinct for programming something unfamiliar beside the warhorse.
- Violinist
Alina Ibragimova
If the restraint is what you liked, Ibragimova takes it further still.