can anybody tell me where to find any good recording (i'm thinking youtube) of the monti czardas?
i've just started it for my grade 8 and i want to hear a simple good recording of it - all the ones i've found so far on youtube seem to be jazzed up and bits added in and all that. just piano and violin, the original score, would be great - doesn't have to be by a famous violinst!

I can't help with "proper" ones, but everyone should see Christian Lindberg's wonderful rendition on trombone.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9GnJ-xL7n3k

The ABRSM Grade 8 CD

Roby Lakatos and Nigel Kennedy are both very original versions which will provide a welcome break from what most grade 8 violinists percieve Czardas to be. If you can incorporate some aspects of their playing into your interpretation, it would no doubt make you stand out from every other grade 8 candidate who no doubt will play Czardas exactly as it says on the page.

Thanks, i'll listen to their versions

OK...try searching for Csardas as well as Czardas.

Son Viohazard listened to several versions. The Lakatos version is not exactly according to the sheet music, but a MUST to listen to, I think!

Ruggiero Ricci has a recorded version.

We also have a recorded version of Ferenc Santa (Hungarian), but there is a freer version of him playing it on youtube here. You have to wait at least a minute into the recording for him to find his way to the accepted beginning of the piece and the recording is spotty. Still worth listening to - that man's bowing is lighter than a Hungarian pastry. Make sure you play with a big Ferenc smile on your face in your exam, anyway!

I think this guy (Josef Lendvay) has a very trad Hungarian take on the Csardas.

Spelt Czardash just to help hide it on youtube, this recording with Vengerov and violin and an army of contrabasses is worth listening to as an accomplished classical rendition. Listen out for the portamenti (not too much, not too little) and the "bite" (dunno what it's called) at the beginning of notes in some accented passages....of course, you'd want to take the ending a bit faster than Vengerov does ( joke).

A related question: I'm playing Czardas for both my grade 8 and my AS level performance. How do you think the examiners would take to embelishments, ie. not playing it exactly as writ? I'd like to, as Bohemian said, to make it stand out a little (hopefully), but I'm not sure whether it's the best idea in an exam situation?