Joaquin Rodrigo
You play an unaccompanied eight-bar quasi-romantic theme that starts on an open G and ranges up to the middle register. Hopefully you’ve worked on the one-minute bow. Only this tale is all on the G string, and you haven’t changed yours in a few months.
That seems counter to the spirit of the thing!
All in a day’s work, as long as you’re in tip-top shape. Alongside piano concertos, violin concertos are amongst the most loved pieces of classical music of all time..
50 Alban Berg Concerto (1935) stream Commentary: My wife Akiko and I go back and forth about which of the two “big” Mozart openings is tougher. Aesthetically it would be nice on one bow though. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam.
How fast are those shifts, really?
One can play a long time with the comfort of the orchestra around them and then, suddenly you are on an island all by yourself.
Well I’m just looking at this wonderful article years later and about the swan lake. What does fairly beginner mean? I would say also both movements of Bartók 1st Violin Concerto are quite a challenge… Nicest and easiest concerto to start? %# , #&')*)-0-(0%()(�� C
Quick summary: First there’s a full-scale tutti that builds to a climax before falling away into fragments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin_Concerto_(Barber) Your email address will not be published.
Plus, you have the same difficulty as in the Sibelius opening: constant small note values in the orchestra that expose any rhythmic funny business.
0 but when you add vibrato into the mix, it does tend to separate the women from the girls. The Barber Violin Concerto’s first movement opening is quite easy. Paganini was a showman! I reserve the right to change my mind later, but that Paganini still makes me sweat! It’s always a placer to read something written from you. It’s a fun try – out piece, too. 3. Fail and they’ll mutter, “G string… does he think he’s better than Kavakos?”. But that’s beside the point. And just how do you transition to the theme?
See how easy that is. I was practicing scales, arpeggios and double stops every day for quite a few years, so playing the big jumps and the arpeggios of the opening did never seem scary to me. Berg reifies the traditional concerto form: the influence of dodecaphony (12-tone music) is manifest in both the orchestral accompaniment and the beastly soloist part. But it’s just cruel to put it right at the beginning after you’ve stood there for nearly four solid minutes. And for the opening of his first concerto, he wanted to leave no doubt in his audience’s ear and eye that he could do the unthinkable.
IMO the concerto of Louis Gruenberg has the most difficult opening.
Ida haendel plays it a lot and played this cadenza on a recording with Previn.
Here is a quote from his official website: “I occasionally play works by contemporary composers and for two reasons. The soloist’s part is written to impress, to explore the bounds of technical ability, and often includes spectacular cadenzas and a cornucopia of extended techniques.
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Quick summary: Practically a full-fledged symphony movement to begin, building to what may be the most dramatic solo instrumental entrance in all of music. Scottish Fantasy (Bruch) 6.
endobj After the Adagio, there’s an acrobatic Allegro that starts high and fast, goes higher (but hopefully not faster), then plunges down to the meaty low register. Although those shifts in the beginning were scary when I was younger, they are much more comfortable now! Wait, next time is the performance?
A lamenting first movement opens to a strident second. You’ll have rosin all over your hands after attempting these virtuosic showstoppers for solo violin. An opening like this is hard to rank because it’s pass/fail. Would name Korngold. It’s just a pity that so many violinists can’t make it past the opening!
Bartok: Rhapsody No.
Commentary: You’re surprised to see this up here, aren’t you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA5jDnFHYlA. 1!) After its premier in 1910, Hans Richter, Arthur Nikisch, Fritz Kreisler and later Yehudi Menuhin celebrated its greatness as worthy to rank with the Beethoven Concerto,, an accolade they never bestowed on the Sibelius or a number of the others on your list.
0000000015 00000 n But we’re talking openings only, so we’ll shelve the fingered octave nightmare page for now and give Sibelius a 5.7. What fun.
I do have to say that it got easier to find that chord until by the time of the performance it was just about automatic. And opening with tenths makes this concerto, like the Stravinsky, a non-starter for certain categories of violinist. << /Annots [ << /A << /S /URI /Type /Action /URI (mailto:support@violinschool.org) >> /Border [ 0 0 0 ] /Rect [ 72 579 187.5 592.5 ] /Subtype /Link /Type /Annot >> ] /Contents 40 0 R /MediaBox [ 0 0 612 792 ] /Parent 33 0 R /Resources << /ExtGState << /G0 41 0 R /G1 42 0 R >> /Font << /F0 43 0 R /F1 44 0 R /F2 45 0 R /F3 46 0 R /F4 47 0 R /F5 48 0 R >> /ProcSets [ /PDF /Text /ImageB /ImageC /ImageI ] /XObject << /X0 39 0 R >> >> /Type /Page >>
After all, Mendelssohn is the first non-Mozart concerto that most people learn. 2. Mendelssohn is next due to its shifts, and also the grwat difficulty of capturing the right character of the music, followed by Beethoven.
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0000043598 00000 n Quick summary: You slur the four open strings without the orchestra, from lowest to highest, then you slur them back the other way.
However, his first Violin Concerto In G Minor just had the edge for us.
You can save that for the panic-inducing sixteenth note passage later in the movement! Quick summary: A tutti that seems to last forever.
Then two bars of an unaccompanied violin arpeggio, ending on an E two octaves above the open string.
First to discourage the composer from writing any more and secondly to remind myself how much I appreciate Beethoven.”. Written in 1947 but not performed until 1955, the music shouts of his quiet torment. When in 2007, Joshua Bell stuck a baseball cap on his head, rocked up at a Metro station in Washington and began to busk, J.S.
Commentary: Every twelve-year-old has the same look on his face the first time his teacher puts this piece on the stand: What am I supposed to do with that? 0000063835 00000 n It was to Karajan that she owed her early international reputation …”.
Could you really play this piece? “You’re inches away from getting smacked by the conductor’s left hand.” Beethoven is definitely swimwear. His political angst engendered some of the most emotionally stirring music ever written, and his violin concerto is no exception.
It starts with a big condenza. 4.
Video of me is all too easy to come by, unfortunately!
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9. It’s a triple-stop, and the only good news is that the bottom note is an open D. The top two notes? Perhaps the Mendelssohn tops your list because the supposed difficulty is is caused by the sheer apathy of performance. 1 In G Minor.
Written in 1880, Saint-Saëns’s violin concerto is as mesmerising to listen to as it is beastly to perform. . Berg. Küchler, Millies and Rieding have very nice beginner concertinos, maybe you should give them a try? With this in mind, Brahms took an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to this concerto: featuring breakneck cadenzas (with one written by Joachim himself) that require mind-blowing dexterity. ���(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(��(���g�W�ň�-6�v. Another “violin try-out” piece due to the comfy opening and great shifting possibilities! 24 Caprices – Paganini. Alban Berg Concerto (1935) Johannes Brahms Concerto in D major, Op. This a cappella work by Béla Bartók was dedicated to and premiered by Yehudi Menuhin, who demanded the composer make some tweaks to make the Sonata easier to play. I guess I'm more insecure than I realize with my playing.
Some let you dig in right away and work your nerves out. Either you can make a good sound playing an eleventh or you can’t.
It takes a brave soloist to take this one out for a spin, but when done right, it’s astounding. Ludwig van Beethoven Concerto in D major, Op. Dohnanyi has two violin concerto – both have different styles of opening and both glorious works. 1, it’s no great leap to play the rest of the passage. 0000043286 00000 n Quick summary: After a ten-second atmospheric curtain-raiser from the orchestra, you start on an open G string and slowly work your way to a nice, ringing D up on the E string. Emotional stimulating music with the most adorable adagio. 1 in G major, Op. Watch your head, concertmaster.”.
He had to call her in last minute because the concertmaster of the London symphony orchestra couldn’t pull it off. 0000039008 00000 n Scale practice and all. Had to include one. For me it would not get too high a score, perhaps something close to Glazunov.
I’ve seen one very famous current-day violinist play the opening of the Paganini staying in fifth position after the first D, thus playing the F# on the A-string, which makes the passage so much easier, and so much less daring and devilish. This violin concerto, one of the greatest in the repertoire, is a feast for the ears. It’s also beside the point that Bartók didn’t mark the opening to be played on the G string. Questions abound: up or down bow, from the string or not, long or short?
Adams I would have to rely on the opinion of someone like Leila, who’s played it so much.
Just know that I read all of your comments, so I hope that this expanded version of the list will delight violinists the world over. It’s because you can walk into a violin shop with icy cold hands and make any fiddle sound like a winner! 9 to Rodolphe Kreutzer, who was considered the finest violinist of the day but Rodolphe, regrettably, hated the piece. At the age of 12, he performed the piece at a party attended by several famous European violinists.
Both of Prokofiev’s? In places, Locatelli’s ‘Labyrinth’ bizarrely has the feel of an Irish jig. I would probably put Kabalevsky between Bruch and Glazunov somewhere; not too tough an opening and a nice short tutti. Required fields are marked *. 39 0 obj Maybe that is less unnerving as you walk out and play and do not have to wait for a multi-minute orchestra introduction while your fingers cool off.
However on the other hand, I can make a far better sound than that level of beginner and am more proficient and intuitive with my hands than someone at my level would be.
I would give it a high score. As far as splitting the bows for the staccato, it’s usually a matter of running out of bow! 61 Romance for Violin and Orchestra No. Brahms’ only violin concerto was modelled on the profound abilities of his violinist friend, Joseph Joachim.
One point one. That's why most of what I do is just try my hand at an assortment of pieces and sheet music I come across online.