<p>bruch 1st concerto, preludio, vocalise, a paganini caprice which i have been aviding for a long time, and god help me! scales.</p>
<p>then you're pretty similar to where i am... mendelssohn concerto e minor... bach paritita no 3 prelude... kreisler praeludium and allegro... and hopefully soon enough the brahms violin concerto... eep</p>
<p>have you heard hungarian dance #8 played by david Oistakh or whatever? and have you played any of the pieces i'm working on?</p>
<p>btw, the brahms violin concerto isn't that bad.</p>
<p>i've played the first mvt of the bruch, and maybe the caprice your talking about... no 11 in a minor maybe? and yes i've heard the hungarian dance by oistrakh, personally i prefer stern, seems more articulate and in command, altho oistrakh's unabridged tchaikovsky is amazing...</p>
<p>brahms op 77? are you kidding me? his op 102 isn't bad, but his violin concerto op 77 is said to be one of the most flawless ever written, my teacher says it's leagues beyond the tchaikovsky... that's why the "eep" was put there haha</p>
<p>how did you like the freedom with the tempo. I've heard so many versions of it and although i've trying to take liberty with the tempo, its hard the get the cd's out of my head. how do you like our modern artists, jushua bell, hialry hahn for example? I heard hahn's bach cd, and i wasn't at all impressed. She made gavotte en rondeau sound romantic instead of a baroque dance. Cassical music, like pop and other contemporary music is fast changing with time, and not for the better...in my opinion.</p>
<p>the only pieces i liked by hahn were her mendelssohn and barber violin concertos... about the tempo... same here i get an idea of what it's supposed to sound like and i can't interpret on my own...</p>
<p>i am really a fan of heifetz, szyerng, francescatti, milstein, menuhin, and oistrakh, the "old geezers"... they had such control and musicality, the one i am beginning to like more now is maxim vengerov, at first i thought he was overly "russian" with his dramatic rubatos and such, but he is actual very talented... i also do agree that classical music has deteriorated over time, as appreciation wanes so does the quality</p>
<p>yea, but appreciation of classical music takes time. When i started the violin, i hated classical music and did for 3 more years. Now, I'm finally starting to appreciate it. btw, have you heard ravel's daphnes and chloe? It's on of my favorite pieces even though i used to hate impressionist composers.</p>
<p>I, on the other hand, think cello technique has much improved since the days you guys are talking about. A lot of old recordings to me have a lot of distasteful playing in it, when respect for a composer's wishes and time period wasn't that popular. Still, some players now also play without taste. . . Anyway, I personally don't like Heifetz and lots of other older musicians. They can't play with a classical style where it's appropriate. I love a musician who can also play Mozart and Bach and Schubert and Beethoven and Mendelssohn tastefully.</p>
<p>mendelssohn is romantic, and i like playing romantic music, heightened emotion and crazy extremity does it for me, or maybe i just dislike bounderies. btw, have you played vocalise by rachmaninnoff? It was originally written for cello.</p>
<p>yeah, it's gorgeous</p>
<p>i do agree with both of you to an extent... sethblue i did hate violin for the first couple of years of playing, but it has developed to be something important in my life... and jono, i think u'll find many good interpretations not in heifetz or oistrakh, the speed demons... *i adore them for their technical abilities, but szeryng milstein menuhin definitely have a flair in their playing that personalizes the interpretation...</p>
<p>with regards to modern musicians, many of them lack the emotional intensity necessary to play many romantic pieces. Although i hold high regards for Joshua Bell's technique on the violin, his interprtation of the entire bruch 1st conserto was so insipid and souless, i thought i'd fall asleep listening to him, even though the piece is one of my favorites.</p>
<p>But does the interpretation of romantic music make up all of classical music? You can hardly say that classical music interpretations are going downhill because some specific modern artists don't play with enough intensity in romantic music for your taste. I think classical interpretations have improved on the whole. In general. They're still not perfect, but I feel like now the music interpretation allows you and the performer to breathe and relax.</p>
<p>Some artists will always have different strengths, like maybe Gil Shaham isn't your favorite Mozart player or Joshua Bell isn't your favorite Bruch player. Some artists will have mostly strengths, like Rostropovich (in my opinion, even though I like some Bach recordings better than his).</p>
<p>i think we can all agree on that</p>
<p>yea i guess. romantic music is my favorite is all.</p>
<p>jono, u play cello right? have you ever played the saint-saens cello concerto in a minor? hunterdon symphony played it once, and i remembered it was so beautiful... but it was hard to play i imagine</p>
<p>i just came back from Massachusetts All State yesterday...good thing to keep my mind off college stuff for 3 days ^_^... we played Korsakov's Russian Easter Overture (really good) and Barber's 2nd Essay...</p>
<p>and for violin, i'm slowly learning the tschaik violin concerto...even though i'll probably never get through it and its impossible =/</p>
<p>have you heard ravel's daphnes and chloe? It was certainly one of the most beautiful pieces I ever heard.</p>
<p>i have heard it... it is very touching, it's amazing how ravel can go back and forth with emotions like that, his tzigane is nothing short of odd...</p>