The highly gifted Swedish-Belarusian violinist Daniel Lozakovich signed today with HarrisonParrott in London.
He has previously been round several agencies, never settling anywhere for long.
No doubt at all about his talent. Just about his manager-management.
We hear that Stephen Rose, former head of…
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The prolific international conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, diagnosed…
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The “kid” can’t help it! He seems overwhelmed by his phenomenal early success and suspicious that “older” people — these managers — are trying to manipulate him. He needs to settle down a bit, take a series of professional “deep-breaths”, , develop a sense of temporary trust, and concentrate solely on his music — like all successful young artists have to do! But above all, Danny should focus on enjoying himself and his success as much as possible now and let his future just happen little by little. Good luck, my super talented young friend!
Nice coomon pl.. err, advices, Mr Zarathusa, I’m sure Mr Lozakovich will be very grateful, I hope he reds SD.
Unfortunately his trust and anger issues come from his [redacted] mom. I used to meet Daniel sporadically at various competitions and masterclasses when we were younger, and his mom’s Cluster B behaviour definitely left a mark on his psyche…
Hopefully he can work those issues out! I love his ‘old-school’ sound
Hmmm. Sounds like Mother Bates from the movie “Psycho”! Danny, avoid motels!
@not a Tiger mom.
One of the mysteries of the profession: who was worse, Michael Rabin’s mother or Ida Haendel’s father?
You might find that Eduard Wulfson has not been an ideal influence here….
Cousin Gilda: ‘Someday my manager will come. I’m just waiting for the right one. My former managers did not work, I did not get assignments with those orchestras that I deserve.’
Billy: ‘What do you play, Gilda?’
Cousin Gilda: ‘Jaw harp, of course!’
What a coincidence! I’m currently composing a work entitled: “Concerto for Six Jaw Harps and Two Whoopie Cushions”.
La chasse à l’enfant prodige, de la part d’imprésarios, organisateurs de concerts, festivals, concours, écoles de musique, est une vraie plaie; choquant, ce n’est plus d’art qu’il s’agit, mais de qui fera la plus grosse prise…et un max de fric!
We heard Daniel Lozakovich perform the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto live with the Boston Symphony Orchestra just before the pandemic, and it was a memorable performance for all the wrong reasons. While DL may be talented, in my opinion he has a long way to go before becoming a truly world class violinist who deserves to be playing with the major orchestras. The performance in Boston was painful to sit through. DL’s vibrato was so wide that it nearly went off the stage, and his tone was unpleasantly harsh strident in loud passages. It felt like the worst kind of exploitation, to be honest with you, putting this very young (18 years old who looked 12) performer in front of an audience that gets off on “prodigy” performances. Maybe DL will become a formidable violinist one day. But in the one night we heard him in Boston, he was not remotely world-class in my opinion and had no business being on the stage of Symphony Hall, even if there were plenty of good things that one could build from in his playing.
Someone who has DL’s long-term interests at heart would have said to him, “Look, you need to take it a lot slower, and work up to this. You are not ready for what you are doing right now, even if you are being promoted by your record label AND we can get you the gigs. If you want a long-term career, you need to take a different path, and you need a lot more development.”
Maybe that is the advice he received. And maybe he rejected it. I have no idea. Or maybe he was being pushed by his managers in a way that he knew himself he was not ready for. But in the one performance we heard in Boston, it was clear this was a performer who was not ready for the stage he was on, playing at the level he was afforded, and he needed much more time and seasoning. That’s not a message any young person would want to hear. But it was what we heard live in Boston.
Listened to him live in Saint-Saëns’ concerto (as encore, Paganini’s “Campanella” !!!) and feel truly deeply sad to agree with you, Herr Doktor. Very sad indeed.
Being myself in the classical-music’s biz (as performer), I was and still am very shocked, to say the least, to observe impresarios, VIPs, festival’s and music schools’ bosses, and alas also hysterical audiences, deal with such young musicians like they were puppets.
Then, after playing, throwing them away without any pity nor humanity, to play with the next puppet…
Let’s hope this won’t be young Lozakovitch’s case.
I am familiar with the performance to which you are referring and I share your concerns for “DL”…to some extent. The fact is that DL was experiencing “health-issues” and was seriously considering canceling even at the last minute but gamely decided that he owed BSO and their audience his best effort for having such tremendous faith in hiring him. He did not play at all “poorly”, it’s just that his extra “effort” was more pronounced and definitely more noticeable to critical ears. True at that time he was a somewhat “immature” teenager with limited experience playing prestigious BSO-type concerts, but he gave a gutsy accounting of his then talents to which I believe the T-man himself would have approved! Let’s face it: DL will only get better (definitely NOT worse) as he becomes more experienced, more proficient, more comfortable, and more confident. In the meantime, let’s all wish him well as he continues to struggle with the mixed blessings of too-early success and subsequent popular adulation and critic-al expectations.
Your comments read like they were written by DL’s PR team. You’re entitled to your opinion that DL did not “play poorly” in Boston. It depends on what you define as “poorly” –
Did he hit all the correct notes? YES (EXCEPT FOR THE EXCESSIVE VIBRATO WHICH IN EFFECT CAUSED HIM TO MISS A STAGGERING NUMBER OF NOTES)
Did he play in time with the orchestra? YES.
Was his performance successful in conveying the essence of the concerto? ABSOLUTELY NOT.
Was his performance pleasing to listen to? HELL NO – WE COULDN’T WAIT FOR IT TO END.
Was his performance “musical” (an entirely subjective concept)? PLEASE….!
If DL was sick or under the weather, then of course allowances should be made. And I did wonder if he was not at 100% because the performance was frankly terrible. But the things that were seriously wrong with his performance in Boston were unlikely to be caused by illness. Illness wouldn’t likely make someone use vibrato so wide that they were missing entire notes wholesale. Illness wouldn’t cause one’s tone to be strident, harsh, and unpleasant to listen to whenever he was playing loud – which was a lot of the time. etc.
In short, I don’t at all agree with your narrative. But of course you are entitled to your own opinion. And in my opinion, Daniel Lozakovich is not ready to be performing on world-class stages, and is doing a disservice to himself and his audiences by seizing that opportunity if it is being presented to him. He has a lot of work to do and should focus on that exclusively in my opinion.
Herr Doktor, yes, you too (fortunately or unfortunately!) have a right to your opinion as do we all but the vehemence and the obvious vitriol with which you express it says more about YOU than about DL’s actual performance! You seem to be, by nature, a very angry person who has little tolerance for other human beings. If you were so distraught and bedeviled by DL’s playing, why didn’t you just leave and demand your money back rather than stay til the bitter end and let your aggravation obviously fester beyond the boiling point? That’s your real “tragedy”, Herr Doktor. And BTW, I have nothing to do with DL’s PR team (I doubt he even has one!) and I resent your very suggestion that I have some pecuniary motive for defending the young artist! In the future, do yourself a big favor: Don’t attend another DL concert, even if someone offers you a free ticket! I’m just concerned that from a medical perspective, HERR DOKTOR, the potential stress factor could prove fatal!
As a concert, concerto-performing, violinist myself, I completely disagree with you, but you’re entitled to you’re opinion. Please remember, however, that they are just that: opinions.
First of all, you should not draw conclusions from just one concert. He could have a day-off and illness can definitely affect the tone. And maybe he had hearing problems due to illness.
But why are you reacting so aggressively on Zaratustra’s message, which is polite and nuanced?
On another matter, why is the composer’s name on the CD stated as ‘Ludwig van Beethoven’? Is this to avoid confusion with Kevin van Beethoven, aged 15, currently studying at the Guildhall School of Music, who has already written 17 symphonies and whose recent Violon Concerto was played on Essential Classics (only three minutes of it, to be fair)? (He claims to be the great-great-great-great-great-great grandson of an illicit liaison between Ludwig and Therese von Brunwick.)
Why aren’t recordings of Haydn’s symphonies clearly marked as Joseph Haydn, to avoid confusion with those by his brother, Michael? Same with the piano concertos of W A Mozart and his son Franz Xavier?
Is Ludwig’s full name given just to fill in the space on the strapline that would otherwise be occupied by the names of other works that might have appeared on the CD to fill out the remaining 40 minutes available in this format?
Finally, who on earth would invest in this CD? Some in this thread have already noted that he is hardly world-class material and most of us would stick with the other stellar names who have recorded this work, from Accardo to Zukerman.
PS – I meant Franz Xaver Mozart – and by the way, why is the little-known violinist’s name on the first line, above the composer’s name? It’s usually the composer’s name, followed by the name of the work and then the performers – even for the most reputable soloists on the planet.
Herbie, you’re right on the money! Keep up your great and oh-so-thorough research! WOW!
My impression of him is that he seems to want to be more famous/popular… What he has is not enough. Otherwise, why would you want to get on stage with a k-pop girl group and played a castrated La Campanella to screaming fans? Why put yourself in a situation where no one hears (or cares) what you playing? A bit more instagram followers? Not sure if this is the right way to get popularity, sorry…
And I agree with other comments, first focus on oneself and develop better then ask for a super star treatment, man… He gets to connect with and please his audience (not k-pop fans who don’t care about you) first, then work from there… And it is not like he doesn’t have opportunities, he has had many! He has gotten many good collaborations, record deals and chances etc. but if the audience is not on your side, nobody gets very far, no matter what…
Don’t understand why you put your two cents worth on something you do not have passion about. This young man was invited by the first lady of France to do a charity performance. A lot of his friends in the classical arena were there that evening; he was not the only one (Gautier Capučon too) that the producer made to perform with BlackPink, a group which I did not know until Daniel Lozakovich performed with them. When one volunteers, be sincere, don’t act like people can’t do without you. We have certainly read a lot about some other divas acting like “they think they are the only stars” in charity performances.
As for his performance in Boston, he returned to Boston because he did well in Tanglewood. He was 18 years old at the time and had not even finished high school. If he didn’t feel well, he had a bad night. He came to Toronto after Boston. I did not know him at the time. When he came on stage I regretted so much about buying the ticket for a ‘prodigy’ performance so I closed my eyes BUT all the parts that I was thinking was going to give me grieve came out better than everything I have heard in 50 years! Let’s face it, his recording of Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto was Gramophone Editor’s Choice out of the last 70 years, blind listening was involved so a lot of ‘big names’ didn’t even make the final cut!
I now pretty much refuse to spend money on any other performers. I have met this young man, just ran into him, few times. He is a very decent human being, very respectful, humble and kind. I feel bad for the Boston audience back in 2019, that was probably one off performance. I have as of last week (February 2024) attended 63 of his performances since December 2019 and at most concert halls I have met people who had been following him since before he signed Deusche Grammophon.
His goal is to get more young people to appreciate the immortal music from before and seeing all the young and old people who show up at his performances, he is getting his wish as a musician come to fruition. He performs for the beauty of the music, never for show off about himself. He did not like his agent telling him to post more on social media; as a matter of fact, DG doesn’t even put all his schedule on his site; as fans we have to search all sorts of ways to find out where to buy tickets. Don’t get me wrong, he is not performing at little corner clubs, he’s invited to perform a lot of state affairs.
Let’s just stay away from angry crowds, not good for our own psyche.
That’s sad. He’s just starting out, for goodness’ sake, and needs to settle down, look around and then maybe take a decision which will benefit him and his obvious talent.
Well there is always going to be room for new and good artists. I have not heard this young person play as of yet. I am sure I will. Rapid switching of artist representation suggests that he is experiencing the not-uncommon bewilderment of “why are not good things happening for me and at a faster pace?”
I knew an exceptionally talented pianist who expressed that same feeling, a sort of amazement that winning a competition (the Dimitri Mitropoulos Piano Competition in her case) and making some successful recordings with the Royal Philharmonic wasn’t resulting in the number or quality of engagements that based on her talent she felt she had a right to expect.
She was good friends with Eugene Ormandy and finally asked him what he thought the problem was and according to her, Ormandy was shocked at her expectations, saying “But Martha … pianists are a dime a dozen.” Her career had a sad end.
And so are violinists, trumpeters, percussionists, etc. In fact, the only musicians who aren’t a “dime a dozen” are jawharpists! In fact, truly talented concert-quality ones are extremely rare!
He is half Belorussian half Kyrgyz..only born in Sweden.