One of the most venerated musicians of our time, Ida Haendel typifies the great tradition of violin playing evolving from her early work with such celebrated pedagogues as Carl Flesch and Georges Enesco.

Since her spectacular London debut at the age of 14 at a Proms concert under the direction of Sir Henry Wood, Ida Haendel’s career has been distinguished by a succession of triumphs in concert halls the world over with critics unreservedly praising her masterful technique and searching musicality.

She has performed with the world’s greatest orchestras and under a succession of celebrated conductors. Her recordings, the most recent of which was awarded France’s coveted Diapason d’or are, invariably, the touchstones by which all others are judged.

In a review of Ida Haendel’s performance of the Elgar Violin Concerto, Nicholas Kenyon wrote “If there is a more musical violinist before the public today than Ida Haendel; I have yet to hear him or her. Haendel’s qualities – an unobtrusively precise sense of style, a glorious freedom of phrasing, an acute feeling for the large-scale direction of a piece – are not ones particularly prized these days, when a cold precision and bar-to-bar flashiness are idolised.” Critic Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe cogently summed up Ida Haendel’s artistry in a recent review of her performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra: “Fresh, youthful inspiration still animates everything Haendel does; she knows it all, but she is still out on a voyage of discovery. She plays the notes with such simplicity, directness and emotional force that they tear your heart out.”

Ida Haendel has recorded primarily for the EMI, Decca and Testament labels. Videos of her performances are available from Video Artists International.