Paganini, the Devil and Corey Cerovsek
Saturday, March 11, 2006
In 1987 both Saturday Night and Vancouver Magazine asked me to photograph the 15 year-old child prodigy violinist Corey Cerovsek. Saturday Night requested I try to capture that scary devil-like virtuosity that many people thought Nicolo Paganini had had. I tried to impress the young man by playing a tape of Lalo's Symphonie Espagnol in my studio. When Corey arrived, in a very offhand way, he told me that my tape deck was off by so many revs per minute because b flat was ....... The young man had perfect pitch. For Vancouver Magazine I was given free reign so I decided to make Corey look like the boy he was. Unfortunately my vision of him included a striped T shirt and he had none. I brought one of mine which Corey liked so much that I give it to him. In October 1996 Corey returned so I asked him if I could photograph him again with the f holes in his hand. Before the shoot we had a beer in Yaletown. Corey reminded me, again in an offhand way, that the violin under the table was insured for millions of dollars. The violin Corey plays now is the "Mianollo" 1728 Stradivarius which at one time was played by Nicolo Paganini.
Corey Cerovsek plays the Elgar: Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61 this weekend with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
VSO