David Watkin is active as a teacher and writer.
He is especially interested in asking what musicology can bring to performance. He is passionate about sharing this curiostiy with audiences and students alike. As the New Grove Dictionary of Music article on him puts it, he has "a passionate belief in the juxtaposition of scholarship and musicianship."
He has given talks and classes and coached at conservatoires all over Britain and in Europe and currently coaches Chamber Music at the RSAMD, Glasgow. His article ‘Beethoven and the Cello’ was published by Cambridge University Press in Performing Beethoven ed. R Stowell and he has written numerous articles about nineteenth-century performance practice for The Strad as well as book reviews. He has written numerous concert programme notes, CD liner notes and enjoys giving pre-concert talks..
His work on the eighteenth-century practice of realising figured bass (improvising chordal accompaniments) on the cello began life as part of a dissertation at Cambridge. As well as resulting in many performances and several recordings, he has published an article about this in Early Music and has given a Symposium and performance at the Utrecht Early Music Festival and lectured and taught at a continuo symposium at Bern Hochschule. His publications have had numerous citations and been included in the bibliographies of many books and academic articles including New Grove Dictionary (see below).
He was invited by leading expert Prof. Clive Brown to give a lecture as part of his Conference at Leeds University, and then to introduce and deliver a lecture on his behalf at the Library of Congress, Washington. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Leeds University Centre for Historically Informed Performance.
He is Visiting Professor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and has taught, coached, given classes, seminars, talks and led workshops at conservatoires all over Europe.
He has led workshops with professional orchestras including Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and English National Opera.
Sliding through History (Portamento in late C19th string playing)
Hausman and Klengel (How two late-C19th cellists played)
Sounds Good in Theory (Theory and Performance)
Book Reviews for The Strad:
New Grove Dictionary
AB Guides to Performance of Baroque/ Classical/ Romantic Music
CUP Companion to String Quartet
CD liner notes include:
Beethoven Quartets (Eroica Quartet hmusa)
Schumann Quartets (Eroica Quartet hmusa)
Beethoven Cello Sonatas (Watkin/Moody
Chandos)
read it here:
http://www.chandos.net/pdf/CHAN%200561.pdf------------
Citations:
‘Beethoven’s Sonatas for piano and cello: aspects of technique and performance’
In Performing Beethoven ed R Stowell Cambridge University Press, 1994
Listed in Bibliography:
Clive Brown Classical and Romantic Performing Practice 1750-1900 Oxford University Press, 1999
New Grove Dictionary article: ‘Violoncello’
David Milsom Theory and Practice in Late Nineteenth Century Violin Performance Ashagte, 2003
C Lawson and R Stowell Historical Performance of Music Cambridge University Press
Published Citations:
C Wieseneldt Zwischen Beethoven und Brahms, Die Violoncello-Sonata in 19. Jahrhundert Baerenreiter, 2006
Tilden A Russel in Notes, MLA /2/vol55/4, 1999 Review of Walden 100 Years of Violoncello
Berard D Sherman Inside Early Music Oxford University Press, 2003 p. 212
Reviewed:
Robert Levin Beethoven Forum
George Barth Music and Letters 78/2, May 1997
Eva Badura Skoda Claremont, Berkeley 1997
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Corelli Op 5 Sonatas: ‘Violino e violone o cimbalo?’
Article in Early Music xxiv/4 Nov 1996
Listed in Bibliography:
New Grove Dictionary Article: ‘Violoncello’
R Stowell ‘Cambridge Companion to the Cello’ CUP 1999
Published Citations:
David Ledbetter ‘On the Manner of Playing the Adagio’ in Early Music xxix/1 Feb, 2001
Peter Walls ‘Performing Corelli Op 5’ Early Music xxv/1 Feb, 1997
Valerie Walden ‘One Hundred Years of Violoncello’ CUP, 2004 p257
Jean-Paul Montagnier Revue de Musicologie T.88/2, 2002 Review of Rolant Zappulla ‘Figured Bass Accompaniment in France’
Paul R Laird The Baroque Cello Revival Scarecrow Press, 2004
Roland John Jackson ‘Corelli’ in Performance Practice: A Dictionary-Guide for Musicians Routledge, 2005
T Slough Precedents to JS Bach’s Fugues for Solo Violin Rice University, 2010
C Hogwood Corelli Op5 Sonatas preface Baerenreiter 2010
David Lidov ‘Against Reproduction’ in Music Semiotics: a Network of Significations ed. E Sheinberg Ashgate 2012 p. 177