Instrument of Pain

Paola di Florio’s documentary Speaking in Strings takes a midcareer look at Italian-born violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, who leapt to prominence in 1981 when she became the youngest-ever winner of the international Naumburg Competition. Salerno-Sonnenberg, who moved to the United States at the age of eight, became a child prodigy of classical music — a title, as we now know, that is both a gift and a curse. In this film she talks frequently of trying to maintain a balance of personal and musical lives, but the story seems to suggest that the two are one and the same. (This may be a matter of interpretation: Only a few vague references are made to romantic relationships and friendships.) What we learn of her personal life therefore is depicted through a series of isolated problems: depression, a suicide attempt, and a terrifying kitchen accident in which she cuts off the tip of her crucial left index finger. Because the focus is so much on the professional, the film is perhaps more valuable as a general look at the texture of life for a virtuoso player at last century’s end than as a character study of its ostensible subject.