Violin

The Oscar that John Corigliano won three years ago for composing the movie score for The Red Violin stood last week, enclosed in glass, in the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Corigliano was in town for the world debut of his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Dallas Symphony and San Francisco Ballet and based upon his movie score for The Red Violin. It was the first night of the new season, and the BSO had gone all out. Large red letters shouted The Red Violin from the mezzanine, brilliant red faux-chandeliers dangled from the ceiling of the lobby, and black-suited bartenders served Red Violins (champagne, Chambord and a splash of vodka)

My shoulder hurts, my back hurts, the whole right side of me hurts -- just from sitting and writing millions of notes," composer John Corigliano says early one morning from a Beverly Hills hotel. "This has been the year of writing billion-note orchestral pieces." One of those big pieces is the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, subtitled The Red Violin, after the Francois Girard film of that name, which owed much of its artistic richness to Corigliano's score. Themes from that score provided the foundation for the concerto, which receives its world premiere this week in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's season-opening program with violinist Joshua Bell and conductor Marin Alsop.

Who's hot David Ortiz of the Red Sox is 5-for-6 with 14 RBIs with the bases loaded this season. Who's not The Cardinals gave up 13 runs for the second time in four days. They lost, 13-1, at Boston on Wednesday. Line of the day Jason Giambi, Yankees 1B AB R H RBI HR 3 3 3 4 2 On deck Matt Tosca, 13, son of Blue Jays manager Carlos Tosca, will perform the national an thems today on his violin. He said it "It's nice to play in June to a sold-out stadium in a big atmosphere with two teams that have the best records."

SALT LAKE CITY - Using the bold strokes of a plane and the surgical precision of a finger file, Ryosuke Kanazawa is making beautiful music. Just two weeks ago, the thin sheet of wood before him was a solid slab of maple. By late spring it will be part of a violin, his fourth in two years. At workbenches around him, other apprentices struggle to make chunks of wood resemble the posters on the walls. Stradivari. Guarneri. Amati. Their works are masterpieces. Kanazawa. Hardaker. Larson.

As Madeleine Jansen prepares to play the title role in her high school's production of Fiddler on the Roof, the Mount Airy teen-ager is taking her cues from a musician who is more than a little bit familiar with the classic. Her tutor, Lya Stern, played violin a quarter century ago in a production starring the actor whose name is synonymous with the play, Zero Mostel. "She tells me stories about the production of the original Fiddler, like when Zero Mostel ... would change the act each night and how the actors and orchestra would have to follow along and keep on their toes," said Madeleine, who will make her debut in the fiddler role when South Carroll High School's production opens a four-performance run tonight.

At the age of 3, Vadim Repin liked to make musical noises with toys. At 4, his father gave him an accordion, which he planned to study when, at 5, his parents enrolled him in a music school in his Siberian hometown of Novsibirsk. "But they said all classes were filled - except violin," Repin says. "So I took violin. A week later, I didn't even remember the accordion. Six months later, I gave my first concert." Today, at 31, Repin is still at it, enjoying a busy career and a reputation for uncommon technical skill, a sumptuous tone (with help from the 1708 Stradivarius on loan to him)

Virtuosos are a dollar a dozen these days; true musical artists remain as rare as ever. Put violinist Vadim Repin in the latter category. He epitomizes the marriage of virtuosity and artistry, as he reaffirmed in a recital Sunday afternoon for the Shriver Hall Concert Series. Barely into his 30s, the Siberian-born fiddler possesses a disarming command of the instrument. Consistency of pitch and precision of articulation can be taken for granted, whatever the speed or dynamic level. From the wispy slithering up and down the scale that haunts Prokofiev's F minor Sonata to the full-force, hyper-animation of Ravel's Tzigane, everything was perfectly under control here.

The weekend's musical lineup included accomplished vocalism, promising pianism and violin-ism (you're right, that's not a word), as well as a spirited, grass-roots opera production. On Friday night, pianist HouFei Yang, winner of the 2002 Yale Gordon Concerto Competition at the Peabody Institute, gave a recital for the Music in the Great Hall series at Towson Unitarian Universalist Church. Actually, half a recital. She switched to collaborative status for the second half, accompanying violinist Tao-Change Yu. On the solo side, HouFei made the strongest impression in the multi-colored Scarbo from Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit.

HIROSHIMA, Japan - There is no escaping the history of this place, especially for visitors, like the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, staying in a hotel just about at the epicenter of the blast that began the atomic age with such ferocity. But there's also no mistaking the city's vitality and openness today. The BSO musicians, midway through their third tour of Japan since 1994, have been taking in that past and present with equal appreciation. They had a free day on Monday and much of yesterday on their own. During this break from the musical action, many of the players visited the Peace Memorial Park, where the history of the bomb that forever changed the world is preserved in sobering detail.

When a regional orchestra such as the Annapolis Symphony entertains visiting soloists, chances are they will be gifted young artists ascending the ranks of their profession. There have been exceptions, however, and this year will be one of them. When the local orchestra opens its 42nd season this month, Maestro Leslie B. Dunner and his players will be playing host to none other than Hilary Hahn, a 22-year-old violinist who has carved out a niche for herself at the highest level in this golden age of violin playing.