Music for unaccompanied violin

[bhodges]

Peter, that looks great!  Thanks for the heads-up.  Very enticing program...

Also, I forgot about this 2-CD set, 24 Capriccios for Violin, all by Dutch composers (on NM).  Some very interesting ones here, for those inclined toward contemporary music.

--Bruce

[lukeottevanger]

Benjamin Schmidt's Ysaÿe is also pretty spellbinding. (Ysaÿe, btw - the earliest use of the Heavy Metal Umlaut)

Naxos have a disk of the solo violin music of Khandoshkin, an 18th century Russian composer, which really impressed me on all sorts of levels - music this good for solo violin? from the classical period? from Russia? written by a Russian, not an Italian? this well played? It's a fine disc indeed.

[Monsieur Croche]

I have this recording:



George Rochberg's Caprice Variations is a set of 51 variations on Paganini's Caprice No. 24. It's a technical tour de force for those of you who like bravura violin playing, running to a rather forbidding length of slightly more than an hour (I could never listen to the entire thing on one sitting!). This is composed in his late post-serialist style, after he embraced tonality (although there are some atonal variations), and presents a wide range of moods as well as a mish-mash of styles from different composers and eras, what with the quotations from Mahler, Brahms, etc. Still quite enjoyable even if there is not much individuality here... (Rochberg, from what I have heard, has generally struck me as a technically accomplished imitator, but pretty much lacking in originality).

Ernest Bloch also wrote two fine (IMO) if rather short suites for solo violin (each suite is only around 10 minutes in length). They are severe works, neo-Baroque in character, with little of the Jewish influence for which Bloch is so famous. I only have this recording, by Hagai Shaham on Hyperion:



It is coupled with a Solo Violin Sonata by Paul Ben-Haim, which is more overtly Jewish in character and, in my opinion, not as interesting.

Benjamin Schmidt's Ysaÿe is also pretty spellbinding. (Ysaÿe, btw - the earliest use of the Heavy Metal Umlaut)

Naxos have a disk of the solo violin music of Khandoshkin, an 18th century Russian composer, which really impressed me on all sorts of levels - music this good for solo violin? from the classical period? from Russia? written by a Russian, not an Italian? this well played? It's a fine disc indeed.

How interesting and unexpected! I have always wondered about the classical music scene in Russia before Glinka... Will check this out, definitely.

That would be my highest recommendation...after JSBach.

Heartily seconded.

[not edward]

(Rochberg, from what I have heard, has generally struck me as a technically accomplished imitator, but pretty much lacking in originality).

OT, I know, but do you know the 2nd symphony? I think that's a superlative and original work.

IMO the CRI recording (NYPO/Torkanowsky) is infinitely superior to the Naxos, though of course much harder to find.

[Harry]

I have this recording:


"Rochberg, from what I have heard, has generally struck me as a technically accomplished imitator, but pretty much lacking in originality"

Really?
Well, did you ever hear his Symphonies, recorded on Naxos, and if, would you apply the same words to them?

[Harry]

OT, I know, but do you know the 2nd symphony? I think that's a superlative and original work.

IMO the CRI recording (NYPO/Torkanowsky) is infinitely superior to the Naxos, though of course much harder to find.

A pity that I could indeed not find this recording for a normal price, but then again I think the Naxos recordings quite good, not to say sublime.

[Harry]

Benjamin Schmidt's Ysaÿe is also pretty spellbinding. (Ysaÿe, btw - the earliest use of the Heavy Metal Umlaut)

Naxos have a disk of the solo violin music of Khandoshkin, an 18th century Russian composer, which really impressed me on all sorts of levels - music this good for solo violin? from the classical period? from Russia? written by a Russian, not an Italian? this well played? It's a fine disc indeed.

That was one of my last year discoveries, surprised at so much quality from this totally unknown composer!

[Monsieur Croche]

Really?
Well, did you ever hear his Symphonies, recorded on Naxos, and if, would you apply the same words to them?

Sorry, I will admit that last remark of mine was rather carelessly phrased. I have the Symphony No. 5 on Naxos, which is quite an impressive work, but a single masterpiece does not a great composer make; consistency is important as well. I meant to say that in Rochberg I can hear clearly the echoes of past composers cast in twentieth-century idiom as some sort of parody, rather than imitation. (Not parody in the humorous sense, of course). In this regard he strikes me as somewhat polystylical, like Schnittke, but compared to the latter Rochberg seems to me rather lacking in individuality; indeed from the works that I have heard I could not place my finger on that certain unique "Rochberg sound" that renders their authorship instantly recognizable. That said, it has been quite some time since I listened to him, and since two posters whose opinion I value have expressed disagreement over my assessment on his music, perhaps it is about time that I pay him another visit... Who knows, maybe my opinion would be changed this time! (Maybe I will hunt down some of his other symphonies as well!) 

OT, I know, but do you know the 2nd symphony? I think that's a superlative and original work.

The 2nd Symphony... isn't that a serial work? Then I regret to say that, since I'm still struggling to come to grips with serialism, it is rather unlikely that I would find anything superlative about it (which is of course no fault of the composer). Maybe some time in the future... Thanks for the recommendation, anyway.

[Monsieur Croche]

Anyway, back to topic, I recently found this recording among my collection, gathering dust on the shelf:



It contains compositions by Hans Werner Henze and a few other (seemingly) obscure composers.