[Agent Kang]

Quote:

Originally Posted by K2Grey /img/forum/go_quote.gif DJShadow wins.

Then who's the loser?

 

[K2Grey]

No one loses, this ain't a zero sum game

 

[pdennis]

Mark O'Connor's albums are definitely hit-or-miss, but he's an astonishingly wide-ranging musician and you should know him if you like violin. His 2 CD set, "30 Year Retrospective", has one of the most amazingly realistic and textured violin sounds ever; it's a live set with violin/guitar/mandolin/bass doing a lot of original music, some of his "Americana" stuff, some jazz, some classical (one of the Paganini etudes I think). For straight up jazz, he really SMOKES with the Hot Swing Trio; maybe not the most hip and sensitive jazz player in general, but among the best jazz violinists ever, and plays with great dexterity and a beautiful sound.

On the opposite end of the sound spectrum, Stuff Smith rocks the house. Check him out too.

 

[geoges.ravel]

If it is violin that you are listening to, it is probably good thing to begin with elman, heifetz, menuhin, kreisler. Once you are familiar with these violinsts, you a lot other to listen to. Modern violinists I would recommand are perlman, hahn. A young prodigy is Chuanyun Li who I believe will be the next great violinist if not greatest. It's only personal opinion hope it can help anyway.

Forgot to say, maybe you can just begin with this DVD, I don't know a better DVD than this one:

 

[aych]

i love vanessa mae's stuff for violin

 

[EhJayKim]

I would recommend getting an album with Vaughan William's The Lark Ascending. There are tons of recordings of it, and they're all very different, so I would just listen to the samples online and if one seems to have a sound that you like, go for it.

 

[milkpowder]

There are so many nice violin recordings out there.

I'll start by recommending Vengerov's Debut album, Midori's Carnegie Hall live recording and Accardo's complete Paganini recordings. There's also Zimmermann's and Ruggiero Ricci Ysaye Sonata recordings.

Grumiaux and Sitkovetsky's Bach Partita/Sonata recordings are highly recommended.

Most if not all of Hilary Hahn's recordings are good ones.

Gidon Kremer is a legend. His Mozart interpretations are very nice, but I also like his sonata (Schumann, Schubert, etc) and virtuoso stuff (IMO the best recording of Ernst Last Rose of Summer).

Most Vengerov recordings are good. I've got a ton of his stuff and he is superbly talented. I quite like his Shostakovich Violin Concerto No.1 and his Tzigane interpretation (which changes from recording to recording).

If you want the best sound quality, look no further than Harmonia Mundi and PentaTone's efforts. They are breathtakingly good. Isabelle Faust and Julia Fischer are both very good violinists.

And I almost forgot, Anne Sophie-Mutter, Joshua Bell, Gil Shaham and Itzhak Perlman, all phenomenal violinists of our time.


Notice I left out the greats: Kogan, Heifetz, Oistrakh, Menuhin, Milstein, the list goes on... They're fairly good too

If you can get a copy of it, Kogan's recording of Paganini Nel cor piu non me sento is absolutely incredible.

 

[pdennis]

To follow up on some of milkpowder's suggestions: Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian and Yo Yo Ma made a beautiful recording of Mozart's Divertimento in Eb, K 563. I just recommended it in another thread, but this work and this recording are both under-appreciated gems.

As far as the Bach partitas and sonatas go, it's Milstein's 50's recordings all the way. It's too bad that this school of playing isn't around anymore... the recordings also have the advantage that they can be had very inexpensively on Amazon (7 bucks each for the Partitas and Sonatas albums).

 

[DocHamm]

A slightly different approach ... give Midori a listen.

 

[bpfiguer]

Michael Rabin, 1936-1972 [BOX SET]

Amazon.com: Michael Rabin, 1936-1972: Music: Johann Sebastian Bach,Johann Brandl,Max Bruch,Fryderyk Chopin,Claude Debussy,Grigoras Dinicu,Edward Elgar,Carl Engel,Alexander Glasunow,Alexander Glazunov,Fritz Kreisler,Jules Massenet,Felix Mendelssohn,Fe

 

[milkpowder]

bpfiguer, great recommendation. Along the same lines is this one: Amazon.com: Michael Rabin: The Early Years: Music: Carl Engel,Fritz Kreisler,William Kroll,Ottokar Novacek,Niccolo Paganini,Pablo de Sarasate,Donald Voorhees,Columbus Symphony Orchestra,Artur Balsam,Walter Robert,Michael Rabin,Ossy Renardy

Although the recording quality isn't the best, the playing is fiendishly good. Accardo's playing is literally mediocre compared Rabin.

 

[musicmind]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdennis /img/forum/go_quote.gif As far as the Bach partitas and sonatas go, it's Milstein's 50's recordings all the way. It's too bad that this school of playing isn't around anymore... the recordings also have the advantage that they can be had very inexpensively on Amazon (7 bucks each for the Partitas and Sonatas albums).

I've been enjoying Milstein's playing on the Brahms Violin Concerto Op.77 a lot recently.

Amazon.co.uk: Brahms - Violin Concerto & Sonata: Music: Johannes Brahms,Eugen Jochum,Nathan Milstein,Christian Ferras,Pierre Barbizet

I dont know if it was mentioned already in this thread, but the Elgar - Violin Concerto In B Minor, Op. 61 is also quite lovely.

Violin Concerto (Elgar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)


Thanks for all the great recommendations, lots of new musical discoveries to be made

 

[pdennis]

I'm excited to look for some recordings of Michael Rabin to explore -- he's new to me. All too often, great musicians with tragically brief careers go unappreciated in successive generations.

As far as Milstein and the Brahms concerto, I'd go for the recording with Steinberg, 'cause in addition to the Brahms the Beethoven concerto on there is tops, especially the first movement.

 

[musicmind]

Thanks pdennis, I'll try to give the Steinberg recording a listen.
Any more recommendations are welcome

 

[milkpowder]

Prokofiev, Nielsen, Shostakovich, Schumann, Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Sibelius, Saint Saens, Bruch, Paganini, Bach, Mozart, Elgar, Rihm, Berg, Korngold, Barber, Walton, Spohr, Glazunov, Szymanowski, Corelli, Vivaldi, Khachaturian, Goldmark, Wieniawski, Stravinsky, Vieuxtemps, Piston, Tchaikovsky.

Now there's a list of violin concertos you should at least listen to once. Go for the "mainstream" performers (Vengerov, Mutter, Bell, etc) first and if you like the piece, then look into specific interpretations.

Oh and I left out Lalo's Symphonie Espagnol if that can be counted as a violin concerto. I've got a few recordings of it: Kogan, Perlman, Heifetz, Ricci, Vengerov. I grew up listening to Perlman's Lalo so I like it the most (even though he occasionally makes some ridiculous mistakes

).