‘Prince Charles is more socialist than the Labour party’: an interview with Nigel Kennedy

‘If I needed a guide to go up a mountain, I’d choose someone who knew the way,’ says Nigel Kennedy. ‘So if someone is telling me what to do, they’d better know a little bit more than me.’

In September, Kennedy’s Jimi Hendrix tribute at the Royal Albert Hall was cancelled after organisers Classic FM deemed it ‘unsuitable for our audience’. It still rankles: ‘I reckon I know more about my particular art form than some guy sitting behind his desk,’ says Kennedy, ‘and so I can’t quite take it when people start saying what is classical music and what isn’t. To me, Hendrix’s “Little Wing” is a kind of Celtic-sounding melody. I do it in a Vaughan Williams-esque type of way so it’s very classical. In fact, my rendition of The Four Seasons would have been much more raunchy and less classical than the Jimi Hendrix stuff.’

It’s been more than 30 years since Kennedy’s controversial recording of The Four Seasons (the bestselling classical album of all time). He’s now 64, but he still has his distinctive hedgehog Mohican as well as a slit in his left eyebrow. These days though, he’s also a country man. He lives with his second wife Agnieszka and their ‘very old’ Weimaraner, Huxley, in the Polish mountains near the Slovakian border, where he talks to me over Zoom. ‘Out the back it’s just wilderness with a fair few creatures like wolves and bears,’ he says. ‘You don’t see them very often because they’re timid — but it’s a nice, natural environment. It’s an amazing place to clear your mind without distractions.’

The wilderness suits Kennedy. He has a daily schedule of three hours’ violin practice and two hours composing on a piano, and in the quiet of lockdown he’s written a violin concerto and his memoirs.