The lady across the road (the one who thought I taught violin, because she thought the sound of Viohazard practicing must be an adult - bless her ) says her daughter (aged somewhere round 8, I think) has been nagging her increasingly frequently about learning violin. I gave her a few phone numbers, but also thought I'd select a few pieces and make a up a violin compilation (with a nod to cello and other relatives). If I just lent it to her, it's no worse than copying a selection for listening to in the car, is it?

So far Viohazard and I have come up with a few candidates...but I want a few nice purple items, as I recall Viohazard being heavily into melodramatic music at that age!

Misty Moonlight Waltz by Mark O'Connor off the Appalachian Journey album featuring Yo Yo Ma, for a nice moody start...

Sinding "Presto" recorded by Ryu Goto, since he's Mr. Hot right now in Japan

Midori's version of Ernst "Last Rose" variations

one movement of Vengerov playing Beethoven's "Spring"

Stephane Grappelli playing....oh gosh, which one??

Midori playing Debussy "La Fille Aux Cheveux de Lin"

Roby Lakatos playing Monti's Csardas in an arrangement/improvisation with Shinichi Kino######a on Tsugaru Samisen

Raggin' the Scale - I'd like Eddie South's version but don't have it

Pigeon on the Gate medley of reels played by fiddler Kevin Burke

Itzhak Perlman playing Oskar Rieding

...What else? What instead?! What inspires you, or caught your interest as a child?

Elgar's Salut d'Amour is gorgeous...

You have to have the Bach Chaconne on there.

Some Mozart would be nice too, K454, or K364 or K421

Hmm I see this being a boxed set of CDs at this rate!

And what about some Biber......one of the Rosary Sonatas maybe, a nice bit of scordatura would be good

Canzonetta from the Tchaik violin concerto in D

We're playing the Tchaik concerto in orchestra....only thing with the Canzonetta on its own (without that wonderful LOUD chord at the beginning of the last movement) is that it ends in a very unsatisfying imperfect cadence....you just HAVE TO play the next chord or you feel all funny inside, if you know what I mean

Oooohh iTunes (I have it playing randomly in the background while I work) has just put its oar in on this subject and started playing the last movement from the Britten....'scuse me while I weep.

*sobs*

it always does that to me

Saint-Saens 'Danse Macabre'.

Great fun to listen to, and play! E string is scordatura too, tuned down to Eb.

Jane: lucky you! I've never played the orchestra bit or anything, just heard it on cds. LOVELY! Yes, I suppose you'd have to do something about the ending... OK, just put the whole concerto on *grins*

Amanda: good one!

Well I can now say I have performed to a live paying audience the Mendelssohn, and the Brahms, and soon to do the Tchaik. I'll just miss out the bit about me being at the back of the second violins, and not the soloist!!

Good call about the Britten violin concerto: this is a amazing masterpiece, it should be far more widely known.

Another wonderful and indispensable movement from the 20th century repertoire is the Passacaglia from Shostakovich's 1st violin concerto: one of the most intensely gripping and profound pieces of music I know.

I am just *so* jealous of violinists...

YES YES YES. I too love the Shosti....(Hmmm both those concerti have a Passacaglia.) Sounds like we are in the same wavelength here...do violas count...can I add the Walton???

If you are so jealous why don't you learn the violin

Hmmm i was going to say that the Elgar Cello Concerto in E should be on there but it is a bit heavy and moody for a 8 year old (but is beautiful though). Also, why not have some Vivaldi (RV171 is a good one). Also, the mozart Violin Concerto in G (Number 3) is worth it as well as Corelli and Handel as well as some Bach, esp. the Double Concerto in D. Most of the time it doesnt matter who is playing cos the piece stands out from the player most of the time.

Oooh yeah, the Bach double! Has the bonus of being very accessible, I reckon.

How about some more modern stuff too, I know it isn't to everyone's taste but some of Vanessa Mae's fusion/electric violin stuff shows the other end of the huge range of the violin, some of those almost pop-y ones might give the kid some inspiration?

After all the frenzied or emotional stuff, for a contrast how about Fratres by Arvo Pärt, in the version for violin and piano? This is a wonderful piece with a deep inner stillness: made up from just a repeated sequence of piano chords, with decorations from the violin, it invokes the spirit of chant and prayer; to hear this music is to be purified and healed.

Also relevant here is his superb Tabula Rasa for two violins and accompaniment.

Pärt is a true master of our time.

Yay we are really on the same wavelength....Spiegel im Spiegel is another of Parts works which sounds so simple but is so effective (vibrato or not??? What do you think?)

Yay indeed! I play Pärt's spiegel im spiegel in the transcription for cello and it's amazing how this simple piece can draw people in and move them, as I have experienced at first hand when playing it with a pianist friend of mine. Anyway, regarding the interpretation, I have heard Tasmin Little's recording where she uses vibrato, and I think that is a perfectly valid choice but may be driven a bit by the nature of CD recording, and possibly the need for a soloist to project to large audiences.

In a domestic live music-making situation, when I play it I don't use vibrato as I think I can obtain sufficient contrast by other means. Principally, this is by starting p, and increasing the dynamic level fractionally for each return of the ascending scale sequence. Obviously, one also changes the intensity and tone colour of the notes (by playing nearer the bridge) in addition to changing the volume.

The culminating point is bar 133 on Bb (the unique highest note in the piece) which I play ff with a dim to the final bars. There's also a subtle tightening of the tension by subtlely increasing the tempo around this point. Also, importantly, even though I don't use vibrato, I don't play open strings, fingering those notes instead, with one important exception which is the low G in bar 102 (the unique lowest note in the piece). Naturally, the open strings will sympathetically resonate for the corresponding fingered notes, which adds an agreeable halo to the sound.

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On the main topic, may I also suggest another essential work for violin and orchestra, namely The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams. This short work wonderfully evokes the beauty and tranquility of an English landscape in summer. Although superficially straight-forward, many violinists have failed to meet its test, particularly flash international ones. The best recent performance I saw was a year or so ago with the gorgeous Janine Jansen at the Proms: she really was able to enter into the heart of the piece. Holland (where she comes from) and Norfolk (which RVW loved) have a lot in common I think...

Doesn't matter at least until you've heard Andrew Manze and Rachel Podger play it anyway . They did it wonderfuly at the proms last year brilliant improvisation; we have a CD recording which confirms this as they play if very differently (not that one can't tell from the spontaneity that comes across and the cheeky challenging looks they give each other almost as if they're daring each other!).

Not picking at your point by the way, I see exactly what you're saying, I just think these two are outstanding .

Wow, what a lot of interesting ideas - I have never heard anybody play Biber here in Japan.

Britten...hmmm...I only have one objection to the Daniel Hope recording I have, and that is the strange look of fascination Viohazard has when he looks at the photo of Daniel Hope throwing his violin in the air on the back cover!

I'm trying to keep each track fairly short, as a kid new to classical might find 16 minutes of slow tempo modern music a bit of a baptism of fire.

Now to clear the stack of CDs which has piled up so high in front of me that I can't see all the screen!

Ahhhh, well that's the issue....you need to get Vengerov's recording Don't think he would ever throw his violin in the air

Sorry to Hi-Jack the thread a little...Storini, thanks for the extensive comments, that's really useful. I have 3 recordings (but none of the cello transcription, has anyone done this?) Tasmin Little as you say uses loads of vib, very effectively. Daniel Hope (who has spoken to Part about it ) uses none, very effectively. Vladimir Spivakov (who the piece was written for) uses none. And I spoke to Sergei Krylov recently about this (who sometimes plays it as a encore) and he advocates a little to none, just a bit to warm up here and there.

As I do not (yet) have a convincing or controlled vibrato I may stay with none for now, but use the piece to practise my vib. those long semi-breves in various positions and fingerings will make a beautiful exercise . I like your take on the dynamics, none marked in the piece so is entirely open to interpretation.

I heard the end of that! It was amazing, I was so sorry to have missed the start!

Hehehehe

I've "done"(!) the Bruch and the... Mendelssohn I think... and possibly the Brahms too. I would actually have to go and listen to be sure (and think "Oh yes, I remember that solo bit before we come in!") because I always get confused when looking back (terrible memory, and it was almost a decade ago....)

My favourite piece for practising vibrato is Frank Bridge's Meditation, it's around G5 and is available in editions for Vl/Vla/Vc.

*jane off to musicroom.com to search for Frank Bridge*

Thanks

To catch a young child's interest try Nigel Kennedy playing Jimi Hendrix. It makes the violin look cool Also, Summer from the Four Seasons, Brahms' Hungarian Dance No5 and Monti's Czardas. Kreisler also.
They're the sort of things which actually interested me during a concert when I was about 9.

Jimi Hendrix, eh? Funnily enough, Viohazard showed no interest in him at age 8-9. On violin however, it could be very different .

I don't think I trust Vanessa-mae with Seasons, but the Mulan theme (Disney)at the very end of her 4 Seasons CD could appeal to a young girl. There are probably other violin-heavy Disney soundtracks, but with two boys, I'm afraid our CD collection is a bit light on "Princess" material!

About violin and cool...I suspect that as adults on the shady side of all that's cool, we may overestimate its pull. Kids have their various reasons for becoming interested in violin.

All these recommendations have really pointed up to me how different the music market in the UK and US/European-influenced Japan is - I rarely see recordings by British artists or of British composers here.

Could not agree more about Vanessa Mae.
I'm not an adult, I'm 15, and my friends pointed out that violin isn't cool, so I got out my iPod and speakers and played them Kennedy's version of Purple Haze. They admitted to having been wrong, which is a big deal How about some Irish stuff, there are some fun reels and gigs around. The Bach Double is always a good one because kids know it. Oooh just had a brainwave, there was this awesome Disney movie, or feature film, which was just pictures to Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony. I loved it sooooo much, and it didn't really click that I was listening to some "real music" until years later. I heard the Philharmonia play it the other day and still remember every note from when I was 4.

Fantasia?

That's great

I've never heard Vanessa-Mae playing the Four Seasons... but some of her own fusion stuff is quite fun.

Yup, Fantasia. Must dig that one out. All the little happy beings dancing on the grapes, and God throwing the thunderbolts, and then the bit with the rainbow...

Vanessa Mae's Four Seasons has nothing seriously wrong with it, some of her stuff I think is really great but in some works I disagree with the interpretation, which I know is a contradiction in terms but there you go.

Yeah, I hear what you are saying about Vanessa-Mae, but her Four Seasons leaves me cold. That's not to say that *my* taste is any kind of guideline!

Nigel IS cool!

Purple Haze? Where can we hear this?

You have good taste
Purple Haze is probably on Limewire or some other download program, otherwise PM me and I'll send it over to you via email. It is on an album, possibly called "The Kennedy Experience".

Great, thanks!!!

Tess

Here's "The Kennedy Experience" on Amazon

What about Vivaldi's Four Seasons? Also some pieces from the string quartet Bond. They have more modern music but they are really good.