In this wonderful interview, that did appear in print, the man says to Neville
"well how did it work out about the music, how did you discuss the style?"
Because Neville wanted a new style. And Neville said "well first of all, the five of us
(five principals) talk about it, then everybody at rehearsal can have their say,
and then we do it my way!"
(laughing) Yes...
And that was from the beginning!
Yes, but you know the whole thing really was born when Neville was invalided out of the army,
because having been wounded he was put first into a hospital
and then when he was a bit better he was sent to a nursing home
and in this nursing home, by an act of God, he was in the next-door bed to Thurston Dart.
Now, quite a lot of people won't know Thurston Dart,
but he was one of the great musicologists, stylists, he was professor at Cambridge
and he had very strong ideas about technique and how English playing was sloppy,
and nobody disciplined the violins so they played mushily,
and he had, I'm sure, great influence on Neville.
And that translated into quite precise style...
Exactly - and it was Thurston Dart who wanted a Baroque style
first they tried with those Corelli bows, those bent bows,
but they didn't feel comfortable,
and Neville said "look - we haven't really got a way to fake it,
and we can't do it for real, so we'll just try and do it through
the style we play: a sort of cleanness, an attack" - and that's what they aimed for.
And I think it was different at the time, probably.
