by Mike Telin
When Cleveland Orchestra first assistant principal second violin Eli Matthews performs Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1 this weekend, he will be revisiting a work that has been an important part of his life since he was seven years old. “When I was a wee child my mother took me to the symphony in Memphis, where I grew up, to hear Eugene Fodor play Paganini’s First Violin Concerto,” Matthews recalled during a telephone conversation. “After hearing it, I asked her to get me a violin and she did. From the time I first picked up the instrument, playing that was a big goal of mine and I did many times when I was a teenager — I won some competitions with it, and I’ve played it with orchestras.” [Read more…]