28, adds. “It turned out really well. He made me another one a bit later, when he’d got the hang of it. And that’s
the one I used right up until a few months ago.” John has since retired as a teacher to work as a full-time
craftsman, and makes up to a dozen violins a year – selling one to the esteemed American player Jaime Laredo
was “the icing on the cake”.
Both Paul and his younger brother, Huw, were encouraged to play music from an early age. The piano
came first: “As soon as I was big enough to climb up and bang the keys, that’s what I did,” Paul remembers.
But it wasn’t long before the cello beckoned. “My folks were really quite keen for me to take up the violin,
because Dad, who played the viola, used to play chamber music with his mates and they needed another violin
to make up a string trio. I learned it for about six weeks but didn’t take to it. But I really took to the character
who played the cello in Dad’s group. I thought he was a very cool guy when I was six or seven. So he said he’d
give me some lessons, and that really started it all off. Later, they suggested that my brother play the violin too,
but he would have none of it.”
“My parents were both supportive and relaxed,” Huw says. “I don’t think I would have responded very
well to being pushed. And, rather than feeling threatened by Paul’s success, I found that I had something to
aspire to.” Now 22, he is beginning to make his own mark as a pianist and composer.
Meanwhile, John Watkins’ cello has done his elder son proud. With it, Paul won the string final of the
BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. Then, at the remarkably youthful age of 20, he was appointed
principal cellist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, a position he held, still playing his father’s instrument, until
last year. Now, however, he has acquired a Francesco Rugeri cello, on loan from the Royal Academy of Music.
“Dad’s not said anything about me moving on, though recently he had the chance to run a bow across the
strings of each in turn and had to admit that my new one is quite nice! I think the only thing Dad doesn’t have –
and may acquire after about 50 – 100 years – is the power to project right to the back of large concert halls. It
will get richer with age, like my Rugeri, which is already 304 years old.”
Soon he will be seen on television playing the Rugeri as the soloist in Elgar’s Cello Concerto, which
forms the heart of the second programme in the new series, Masterworks. “The well-known performance
history doesn’t affect the way I play the work,” he says. “I’m always going to do it my way.” But Paul won’t be
able to watch himself on television – the same night he is playing at the Cheltenham Festival. Nor will Huw,
whose String Quartet is receiving its London premiere at the Wigmore Hall the same evening. John and Hetty
will have to be diplomatic – and energetic – if they are to keep track of all their sons’ musical activities over the
coming weeks.
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