Violinist Nicola Benedetti: Gifted, gorgeous and on the £10-million fiddle

She and Leonard kept their 関係 私的な at first. Recently, he tweeted a photo of them at the 結論 of a concert. ‘You think people can tell we’re not just professional partners?’ he asked rhetorically of their 注目する，もくろむ-gazing. Then a photo of her with 行方不明になる USA at a 記録，記録的な／記録する company party: ‘Looking beautiful even next to 行方不明になる USA.’ And a photo of their first concert together, as Menuhin school pupils: ‘She was ten, I was 12. She looks the same.’ (This is true.)

Could she have nailed a serious 関係 with a 非，不，無-musician? ‘You can’t choose who you 落ちる in love with. Leonard and I are lucky that the person we’re in love with is good for us. Because it happens all the time that you 落ちる in love with someone bad for you. Look at Amy Winehouse or Whitney Houston.’

I 見解（をとる） these unselfconscious 言及／関連s to popular culture as a small 勝利 for Mama and Papa Benedetti, considering the hothouse 環境 of the child genius. She argues that she was not at that level, that when she joined the Menuhin school she was behind her peers, often from Eastern Europe, whose parents were musicians and whose path had been calculated. For her, it was straight 支援する to basics to cure bad habits. She went from playing Tchaikovsky to moving the 屈服する over unheld strings, then learning もう一度 how to 減少（する） her fingers on to the strings and 解除する them off, then 規模s.

That went on for a year. She 栄えるd in the 激しい, strict 環境 ? practising at night, practising before breakfast, 選び出す／独身d out by Menuhin himself ? but left peremptorily at 15. Why? ‘I felt my time was up with my teacher.’ She had some concerts lined up, おもに in Scotland, and crammed in GCSEs 経由で 私的な tuition. Within months, IMG 管理／経営 調印するd her; within a year, she won BBC Young Musician of the Year and was 申し込む／申し出d a £1 million 記録，記録的な／記録するing 契約. ‘It’s funny. I was taking things in my stride on the one 手渡す, yet my memory of those years is feeling nervous and 自信のない.’

Her career ran away from her. She was playing 110 concerts a year and her 基準s slipped. She 削減（する） 支援する, ‘worked hard’ and 達成するd the consistency she was 有能な of. She will always remember the support of an old school friend, Alina Ibragimova, now a 公式文書，認めるd soloist. ‘She said, “Think 支援する to school. You were 広大な／多数の／重要な then. You had all these 質s. You still have them.” I remember thinking it was so 甘い of her to say that, as she’s in the same profession.’ So is there 普通は a lot of jealousy in music circles? ‘Sure. A 抱擁する 百分率 of playing the violin is technical. But in order for audiences to love you, for a conductor to say, “I want to 招待する her,” it’s as much to do with who you are, your message. There’s an element you can’t 支配（する）／統制する, which has nothing to do with practice, and that encourages jealousy.’

'There’s plenty of scandalous stuff going o n all the time with soloists, but I count myself lucky. I’ve been with Leonard five and a half years. I don’t know whether I’m the type or not because I’ve been so 充てるd and in love with him for that whole time I’ve never got myself caught up in any of that’

Gio Benedetti used to tell his daughter, ‘You’re a 広大な／多数の／重要な 一括,’ and she would cringe. She didn’t want to be 解任するd as a classical babe. Her world is 悪名高くも snobby about anything seen as too 人民党員. But it seems she has come to 条件 with 存在 a 広大な／多数の／重要な 一括: talent, 運動, youthfulness, looks, likeability. ‘People always go on about looks but it’s funny how they don’t realise that it’s more to do with who you are.’ She once said, ‘Classical music isn’t supposed to be sexy.’ She disowns the 感情 now. Isn’t playing an 器具 with passion more truly ‘sexy’ than Cheryl Cole grabbing her crotch while miming? ‘I 全く agree. I think something of no 実体 is the most unattractive thing.’

In reality, the classical music world is as gossipy and prurient as any other. I once 追跡するd a 主要な orchestra for six months and was shocked at the hard drinking and infidelity. ‘Oooh, tell me which one!’ (No.) ‘I bet it was…’ and she effortlessly identifies the 訂正する outfit. Do soloists float above that? ‘Not as a 支配する. There’s plenty of scandalous stuff going on all the time with soloists, but I count myself lucky. I’ve been with Leonard five and a half years. I don’t know whether I’m the type or not because I’ve been so 充てるd and in love with him for that whole time I’ve never got myself caught up in any of that.’

Children? ‘I’m desperate to have children. I’m very motherly.’ She says, half-jokingly, that she channels these instincts into her edu cational work with Sistema Scotland, a charity that has formed a children’s orchestra on a 堅い 広い地所 in Stirling. ‘These children have no time after school to hang around the streets and get into trouble. They finish school, they practise until six, they’re 粉々にするd and they’ll say they’re happier for having that challenge.’

Her かかわり合いs make me wonder how much time she gets to spend with Leonard, but she says they have the 柔軟性 of freelances, and often 小旅行する or practise together. He may be a big part of her new-設立する 信用／信任. Her 最新の album, The Silver Violin, is the most accessible yet, featuring 単独のs associated with the silver 審査する, from Schindler’s 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） to the beautiful Shostakovich romance she is playing at the Proms.

‘I would never have been so sure of my placing as a young violinist in the classical music world even a year ago,’ she says. ‘But I feel my path is moving 正確に／まさに where I want it to and that’s the first time I’ve felt like that. My work is all-消費するing and stressful ? playing in 前線 of thousands most nights ? but this is my life. It is me.’

Nicola’s album The Silver Violin will be 解放（する）d on Decca on 3 September. She will 成し遂げる at the Last Night of the Proms on 8 September

Styling: Alex Reid at Frank 機関. Make-up: Jaimee Thomas at Frank 機関, using Lancome. Hair: Peter Beckett at Frank 機関 using Kiehl’s. 支え（る）s from Palmbrokers