[musicmind]

Thanks milkpowder, thats quite a lot of concerti to wade through.
Any particularly noteworthy "must-hear" tips among those would be great, especially since you are a violin player yourself

Also, in all the classical violin talk in this thread it seems the jazz violinists Stephane Grappelli and Jean-Luc-Ponty have been slipped through f-holes.

 

[corpse_linguini]

HI first time posting, i recommend checking out Hilary Hahn's take on Stravinsky's Violin Concerto in D. Really blew me away...its a concerto in a neoclassical vein with a few dissonance notes for taste...

 

[milkpowder]

The HH's Stravinsky is very good indeed. I have to admit I'm not very familiar with the concerto and that the HH recording is the only I have at the moment. Are there any other ones you recommend?

Gotta eat now. More later...

 

[milkpowder]

HH's playing is so precise. Listen to her Paganini 1st. Literally every single note can be heard in its entirety with very little drama in between. She also looks natural even during the most difficult passages. This is something which can't be said of many other great violinists like Vengerov, Shaham, Kremer or even (flame suit on) Heifetz. Her intonation is also incredible.

Anyway, here are the HH albums I have listened to and would recommend:

Amazon.com: Paganini: Violin Concerto No. 1; Spohr: Violin Concerto No. 8: Music: Niccolo Paganini,Louis Spohr,Eiji Oue,Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra,Hilary Hahn

Amazon.com: Hilary Hahn Plays Bach: Music: Johann Sebastian Bach,Hilary Hahn

Amazon.com: Hilary Hahn ~ Brahms · Stravinsky - Violin Concertos: Music: Johannes Brahms,Igor Stravinsky,Neville Marriner,Hilary Hahn,Academy of St. Martin in the Fields

Amazon.com: Hilary Hahn ~ Beethoven - Violin Concerto · Bernstein - Serenade: Music: Ludwig van Beethoven,Leonard Bernstein,David Zinman,Hilary Hahn,Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Amazon.com: Elgar: Violin Concerto, op.61 / Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending: MP3 Downloads: Hilary Hahn

I would very much like to hear her Shostakovitch, Mendelssohn Concertos and Mozart Sonatas too, but haven't got around to buying them yet.



If you're a fan of solo violin works (sonatas, etc) or virtuoso-show pieces, there are numerous works by Paganini, Sarasate, Wieniawski, etc...

A few albums I particularly like are:

Amazon.com: The Devil's Trill: Showpieces for violin & piano: Music: Claude Debussy,Manuel de Falla,Zoltan Kodaly,Josef (composer) Suk,Giuseppe Tartini,Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky,Henryk Wieniawski,Eugene Ysaye,Aleksander Zarzycki,Vladimir Yampolsky,Da

Amazon.com: The Art of Ruggiero Ricci: Music: Giorgio Ricci,Johann Sebastian Bach,Ludwig van Beethoven,Johannes Brahms,Max Bruch,Fryderyk Chopin,Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst,Karl Goldmark,Paul Hindemith,Jeno Hubay,Edouard Lalo,Ottokar Novacek,Niccolo Pagan

Amazon.com: The Art Of Itzhak Perlman: Music: Red Mitchell,Israel Zohar,Johann Sebastian Bach,Johannes Brahms,Stephen Foster,Percy Grainger,Scott Joplin,Aram Khachaturian,Erich Wolfgang Korngold,Fritz Kreisler,Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,Manuel Ponce,And

Amazon.com: Ysaÿe: Obsession (Six Violin Sonatas): Music: Eugene Ysaye,Frank Peter Zimmermann

Amazon.com: Midori - Live at Carnegie Hall: Music: Ludwig van Beethoven,Richard Strauss,Claude Debussy,Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst,Fryderyk Chopin,Maurice Ravel,Midori (Goto),Robert McDonald

Vengerov Plays Bach, Shchedrin, Ysaÿe Classical

LAW001 - Franz Schubert - "Debut" - Maxim Vengerov, Irina Vinogradova - Crotchet Web Store for online purchase of CDs and DVDs

A Paganini - Virtuoso Music For Violin / Kremer | ArkivMusic

Amazon.com: Simply Sarah: Music: Antonio Bazzini,Johannes Brahms,Grigoras Dinicu,Gabriel Faure,Christoph Willibald Gluck,William Kroll,Felix Mendelssohn,Niccolo Paganini,Sergey Prokofiev,Pablo de Sarasate,Jean Sibelius,Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky,Charl



Violin Sonatas?

Amazon.com: Robert Schumann: Violin Sonatas No. 1, Op. 105 & No. 2, Op. 121 - Gidon Kremer & Martha Argerich: Music: Robert Schumann,Martha Argerich,Gidon Kremer

Amazon.com: Beethoven: The Violin Sonatas: Music: Ludwig van Beethoven,Vladimir Ashkenazy,Itzhak Perlman

Amazon.com: Beethoven: Violin Sonatas "Spring" & "Kreutzer": Music: Ludwig van Beethoven,Alex Markovich,Itamar Golan,Maxim Vengerov

Amazon.com: Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Kreutzer Sonata: Music: Ludwig van Beethoven,Jirí Belohlávek,Prague Philharmonic Orchestra,Alexander Melnikov,Isabelle Faust

Amazon.com: Complete Violin Works / Octet: Music: Schubert,Afanassiev,Maisenberg,Coe,Kremer

Amazon.com: Strauss, Respighi: Violin Sonatas [Germany]: Music: Chung,Zimerman,Ottorino Respighi,Richard Strauss



That should get you started. We could be here forever if I were to list every single album. I have listened to every single album I recommend and they are very good. The recording quality of most of them are decent. If you want superb recording quality, I highly recommend the Harmonia Mundi (Isabelle Faust) and PentaTone (Julia Fischer) recordings. You're ears won't be able to thank me enough and I'm not joking. The Beethoven Concerto/Kreutzer Sonata album by Harmonia Mundi is a must have.

 

[musicmind]

milkpowder, thank you for preparing a fantastic list of handpicked gems, I'm sure many will find it useful

 

[jsaliga]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJShadow /img/forum/go_quote.gif 110+ mins of sublime and enchanting solo violin playing - Grumiaux is astonishing. I've barely listened to the other 5 classical CDs I bought at the same time. I'd like to know more violin works too

Great suggestion! I'm listening to it right now and it is absolutely wonderful. I know it's a little OT, but I would also like to recommend Bach's Cello Suites on Philips, with Maurice Gendron. It's bittersweet music that stirs the soul.

My suggestion for those getting into classical music is to get yourself a vinyl rig. It will open the door to so many spectacular recordings from legendary performers that it will make your head spin. And the great news is you can pick up a lot of these records for less than $5 a pop.

--Jerome

 

[milkpowder]

Grumiaux's Bach is very good, but I personally prefer Sitkovetsky's. Different style, but just as nice to listen to. As a serious-ish violin player, I find it helpful to have multiple versions of the same pieces to get inspirations from. I'm nowhere near good enough to invent my own interpretations.

Another 'complete' Bach collection I have is the Menuhin. His interpretations are vastly different.

The joy of playing and listening to Bach is, for me, derived from the many different ways one can approach the same piece.

BTW, my favourite Bach Partita/Sonata is the A minor Fuga of the 2nd Sonata closed followed by the G minor Fuga of the 1st Sonata and then finally the famous Chaconne. Grumiaux's Chaconne is very nice indeed.

 

[Oistrakh]

Here are some recommendations

Ivry Gitlis: Chances are you've never heard of him, but wait till you hear this album. Playing/vibrato like you've never heard it before, so unique and exciting!


David Oistrakh- What more can I say? I also recommend his Khachaturian, Kabalevsky violin concerti recordings

Also check CDs by Christian Ferras (wonderful vibrato), Szeryng (Bach),

 

[milkpowder]

I'm listening to Hilary Hahn's Mendelssohn and Shostakovich recording atm. I finally got round to buying it, and also her Barber, Meyer, Schoenberg, Sibelius recordings. Simply breath-taking. Superb playing + recording quality.

 

[Pingunugnug]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DocHamm /img/forum/go_quote.gif A slightly different approach ... give Midori a listen.

I have her "Encore!" album and it's pretty good.