Q: Dear Jörg, I'm very happy to welcome you. Could you please introduce yourself?

Jörg: Yes, I'm also happy to be here. I am Jörg Schurig from Berlin, Germany, and I play the violin with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra.

Q: When did you start playing the violin and why?

J: I started when I was a child, at the age of five, because a friend of mine had started to play the violin abut two or three months earlier, and I was so excited about his first recital that I absolutely had to learn to play the violin.

Q: Later you studied both the violin and piano?

J: Yes, at a music college in Dresden.

Q: And in 1989, you came to Berlin.

J: Right, I came to Berlin when the wall was torn down. That was a good moment.

Q: I would also like to ask you which composer(s) you like most.

J: This is a good question. The composers I like most, we seldom play or do not play at all; I play in a concert orchestra, and we don't play Bach, for example. I like Bach very much, more than anyone else. Of course, there are always pieces or symphonies by other composers to which I look forward very much, and I'm very happy when we play them once every few years.

Q: And besides Bach, are there other composers that you like?

J: Oh, yes, Mozart, of course. He had an incredible spirit that he put into his music, one that you can feel again and again. His works were never just random compositions, and as far as I know, he never corrected what he wrote. And that's very interesting, because many other composers revised their pieces several times. But his works were apparently created in a whole piece, out of one inspiration, and he couldn't wait to write them down. Also, he always had too little time to write down the vastness that he had in his head or in his being. That's why he could accomplish so much in such a short time and leave it all to us.

Q: Which other composers do you especially like?

J: I like some pieces by Tschaikovsky very much and love to play his Pathetique Symphony, and Bruckner's works are also very beautiful.

Q: Anton Bruckner?

J: Yes, Anton Bruckner. For example, the fourth symphony of Bruckner is something I think everyone should listen to, because it's so beautiful, and the end of that piece -- the last three minutes -- are like coming from above. It's simply divine, very, very calm. Listen to it, if you can. It's very, very beautiful.

Q: How did you turn to spirituality? How did that happen?

J: Yes, I can tell you. In order to learn an instrument, one needs to pay attention. One has to be quite diligent and have some discipline in order to learn the technique, to get into this musical world, because if you don't have technique, you cannot go inside. After that, you should also have your own sound, which comes from your being, and it's what you put into the music that you're playing. For example, one pianist has a form of expression, strikes the keys in a different way than another pianist, so pianists are very different, and it's always interesting to see when they come to us and they play a piano concerto by Mozart or Beethoven, how differently they play it, like with a soft, wonderful touch, or flowing, or hard.


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