<p>I don't entirely agree. I've never really been as impressed with Joshua Bell as some people seem to be, but I wouldn't attribute his success completely to looks and personality. I think he is better than the typical Juilliard grad, but I don't think he's on the same level as some of the really great violinists out there.</p>
<p>I'm not playing anything nearly as impressive as some of the people in this thread, but I just started Wieniawski's Polonaise in D, which is a fun piece, although it has some pretty tough technical spots. I just finished the first movement of Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole, as well as some solo Bach. I wish I was playing the Tchaikovsky, but I still have a ways to go.</p>
<p>My statement was probably a bit of hyperbole and after some review, Zigeunerweisen is perhaps not THE most technically difficult piece, but I certaintly consider it up there with the Bach Chaconne, some works of Wieniawski, the Devil's Trill, Kremer transcription of Der Erlkonig, Nel Cor, and the Last Rose of Summer which you mentioned. Look at the last movement (although I hesitate to call it such since I'm not sure exactly how Sarasate divided up the piece) and tell me that is not difficult to play IN TEMPO and IN TUNE.</p>
<p>Note: I said technically difficult, which implies simply the ability to play the notes in time and in tune and not necessarily provide virtuoso interpretation. This would apply more to something like the Sibelius and Tchaikovsky, which are by no means easy to play but I believe some elements of technical difficulty are not found in them to the extent that they are in a lot of the showpieces I mentioned (Zigeunerweisen, for example, was composed specifically for the purpose of showcasing Sarasate's technical skills).</p>
<p>Yes, I have. I actually saw a 6th grader play the Carmen Fantasies one time, which blew my mind. She did a very respectable job too.</p>
<p>In regards to difficulty between the two Sarasate pieces: perhaps the Carmen Fantasies are more difficult on the whole, since Zigeunerweisen has several brooding, slow passages that are not terribly difficult to play, but there are passages in Zigeunerweisen that would blow Carmen out of the water.</p>
<p>Watch (or rather listen, since it gets a little out of synch since Zigeunerweisen gets so fast at that point). from 6:49 onwards and pay special attention at around 8:00. If you can "laugh" at that I have officially lost all respect for you as a violinist.</p>
<p>hmm, maybe if that section is a LITTLE BIT difficult, but still, can it compete with the fiendishly hard Last Rose of the Summer by Ernst (listen to recording by midori)... All those double harmonics, Harmonic staccatos, huge octave leaps, etc...</p>
<p>Here Waxman Carmen Fantasy, watch ALL of it played by Kogan... ITs extremely challenging technically, more so than your precious "Zigeunerweisen"</p>
<p>"ITs extremely challenging technically, more so than your precious "Zigeunerweisen"" Awww, he's getting cheeky on me, how cute. What's the matter Mr. Virtuoso?? Are you mad because you might have to live with the fact that Zigeuerweisen is actually an extremely difficult technical piece that only a fool would claim otherwise? It only hurts if it's true. </p>
<p>Very nice video, though. I think I already agreed that the Carmen Fantasies are more challenging overall: "perhaps the Carmen Fantasies are more difficult on the whole, since Zigeunerweisen has several brooding, slow passages that are not terribly difficult to play, but there are passages in Zigeunerweisen that would blow Carmen out of the water." And your "precious" video hasn't proved my original assertion wrong. The only parts where the Fantasies begin to rival the passage I showed you start at 9:32, and even then the tempo is significantly slower and the only mitigating element is the rapid string crossings (which can also be found in Z, to a lesser extent). The passage I showed you has the following elements which make it more difficult than any other passage in the video I saw: </p>
<p>1). sustained rapid(er) movement at the very top of the E string that require fingers to move constantly (as opposed to keeping them all down on the string, as the Fantasy does whenever it approaches the highest positions or moves around considerably)</p>
<p>2). Higher octave leaps in faster time. When it goes da-da-da-da-da <em>ZING</em> -da-da-da-da, Trust me, it is SO HARD to accomplish that and still keep time.</p>
<p>3). The pizzacato. The speed and accuracy needed to pull this off surpasses anything in the Fantasy. </p>
<p>Having played and performed both these pieces (you haven't or else you wouldn't have made such ignorant comments about Zigeunerweisen) I can attest to the fact that the passage I have highlighted surpasses even the hardest parts of the Fantasy, which took me months to perfect by itself. But, I'm glad we can agree on something (see above). And feel better, okay?</p>
<p>ok, how you played or looked at parts of Last Rose of the Summer by Ernst? Lets see if you can play THAT and still think Zigeunerweisen is the hardest piece ever composed...</p>
<p>oh, and if you're so good at violin, why not upload a video or you playing Zigeunerweisen so you can demonstrate? :)</p>
<p>Jimbob: AHH! Sorry for the screenname confusion...Anyways, the canon rock was amazingly cool. I believe I saw another video of the same song played on the guitar, but by a different person. In any case, I will definitely be picking up my guitar again. (I haven't practiced in months due to lack of time...and apathy.)</p>
<p>i havent played the violin in 2 yrs. i'm mainly avoiding it right now because i was tuning my violin because i wanted to start again and my a string snapped and hit me in the face. i'm too lazy to look for a teacher because back when i played (2yrs) i took orchestra at school</p>
<p>I can't believe you still claim that Zigeunerweisen is the hardest piece composed for violin when you haven't heard/played anything by Ernst or Erlkonig by Schubert...</p>
<p>Zigeunerweisen is also only hard in a spot for a couple of seconds, while those pieces are devilishly hard throughout!</p>
<p>seeing joshua bell perform was the scariest thing i've ever experienced - and not in a good way. my orchestra director is alison bailey, sister of zuill bailey, a cellist. i know this is for violinists, but i love zuill, and you should check him out at <a href="http://www.zuillbailey.com%5B/url%5D">www.zuillbailey.com</a> ...he was even on a couple episodes of Oz - he played a cellist who murdered ppl and then got killed in jail. pretty sweet.</p>