Please Recommend More Classical & Violin/Viola/Cello Music CDs

Cafe Society
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My wife has taken up the violin again! We lined up a very good tutor/teacher and she usually goes once a week for practice along with my middle son who is just starting. They have been doing this since last summer. My wife seems happier even though she’s been sick with anemia on and off over the last 4 years. The tutor has been impressed with her picking up where she left off half a lifetime ago, that he has offered her a spot to perform in local performing arts theatre. She’s too shy to accept the offer at this point in time, but she said when she gets better, she might consider it.

I’ve been quite supportive of all of this to the point of buying some musical CDs for her. So along with Yo-Yo Ma, she also likes Josh Groban, so last Christmas I got her these CDs…

Classic Yo-Yo Ma
Josh Groban / Closer
Josh Groban / Awake

I went to Costco online and I am going to purchase these CDs online:

The Great Violin Concertos
Yo-Yo Ma: Appassionato
Enya (Another favorite of hers)

I am also considering buying this violin as well. But that is for another day…maybe…when she does want to perform.

Any other string artists that I should look out for? Any other CDs from Yo-Yo Ma or a collaboration from other artists should be considered “must haves” for a violin player? I know we are probably just scratching at the surface here because we really haven’t pursued this genre at all. She didn’t even know who Yo-Yo Ma was until she saw on PBS last Thanksgiving or so!

Please ask me questions if you need more info on what my wife’s tastes are musically…I will try to get better answers for you. You know…“help me help you help me” kinda thing. Thanks Dopers!

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Rachel Podger: J.S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin. I have the original two CD’s but they have been released as a single set.

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Pretty much anything with Itzhak Perlman is a safe bet. One of my favorites appears to be OOP, but can be obtained cheaply. Well worth it.

Paderewski is also very reliable. Here’s one of my favorites of him as well.

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If she likes Enya, she’ll love Loreena McKennitt… listen to “Tango To Evora” in this link

Note the prominent violin part played by Hugh Marsh - something your wife can aspire to!

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Gladly! In no particular order -
Violinists -
Isaac Stern
Yehudi Menuhin
Jasha Heifitz
Joshua Bell
James Ennis
Gidon Kremer
Anne Sophie Mutter

Cellists -
Pierre Fournier
Mtislav Rostropovitch
Lynn Harrel
Jacqueline du Pré

May I also recommend the enormous and beautiful repertoire for chamber ensemble? There are hours and hours of delight to be had in playing through the string quartet and piano trio repertoire. You can listen to it, too, but the thrill of playing in a chamber ensemble is fantastic, and while some of it is as challenging as the solo repertoire from a technical standpoint, you will also find lots of satisfying rep. (Esp. Haydn and Mozart - the first violin has to work like a bugger, everyone else gets to shine from time to time, but they don’t have the same constant pressure.)

Among artists to be recommended -
The Beaux Arts Trio
The Amadeus Quartet
The Melos Quartet
Quartetto Italiano

Pieces or at least composers to recommend -
Beethoven - the Sonatas for Violin and Piano, and there’s a lovely recording by Wilhelm Kempff and Yehudi Menuhin
Beethoven - the Sonatas for Cello and Piano I really like the recording with Kempff and Fournier
Beethoven Piano Trios
Beethoven String Quartets
and of course the Beethoven Violin Concerto
Brahms - the Quintets and Sextets - Oddly, the Brahms string quartets aren’t the height of his writing; he somehow needed the extra instruments to cut loose. These are outstanding pieces, and there’s a wonderful recording by the Amadeus Quartet.
Brahms - the Piano Trios - I especially like the recording by the Beaux Arts Trio.
Dvorak - Cello Concerto - I still have my copy of Lynn Harrel from 1978, even though it’s been played at least once a month.
Elgar - Cello Concerto - Normally, I wouldn’t cross the street on a sunny day for Elgar. The Cello Concerto, played by Jacqueline du Pré, is a recording that makes you proud to be a human… I can’t say enough about this wonderful woman, and her playing.
I’ll stop here for now, let me know if I should just shut up or if you want more, I can go on long after most people glaze over…

As I’ve mentioned to other people in similar threads, check your local library’s collection, and if that doesn’t work out, look into your nearest University’s library. I’m lucky that way, University of Toronto is my local university and although the recording collection doesn’t circulate, it is worth it to drop by every couple of weeks to just sit and listen. Naxos Records used to have a deal where you could sign up to listen on line, but the quality of their artists can be really hit and miss. (Their classical guitar collection is by far and away the best on the planet, for example. Their Haydn symphonies did nothing for me, however.) Classical recordings can be an expensive habit, and it’s a good thing to be able to listen to them to sort what you don’t like from what you need to own.

Hope this helps

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For the Great-with-a-capital-G violinists, you need to add David Oistrakh and Leonid Kogan. For performers who are still alive, Maxim Vengerov definitely deserves a mention. Hillary Hahn also has some outstanding records. There was also the truly stellar Michael Rabin, unfortunately his CDs are hard to come by, which is a bloody shame. There’s an LP titled “Michael Rabin - In Memoriam”, that’s a must-have for violin lovers but it’s impossible to find.

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I agree about Michael Rabin, who died so tragically young, at 35. And yes, I have the LP.

And I’d add Gil Shaham to the list.

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My favorite string recording (by some distance) is Janos Starker’s (1966) Bach Cello Suites.

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Julian Lloyd Webber. He’d be much more famous if he didn’t have a brother.

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I second the mention of David Oistrakh.

I’ve recently ordered the CD of his performance of Sibelius’ violin concerto with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Symphony. I’m not a big violin fan but his performance on that recording is unbelievable.

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I was thinking about that recording only earlier today, before having seen this thread. And my God, yes, he brings something to the first movement’s pacing which I’ve never heard elsewhere.

For the Beethoven sonatas, this box set is fantastic value - it’s a beautifully understated and poised set of performances.

Britten’s violin concerto does not have the prominence in the repertoire it deserves, and there’s a great recording by Vengerov. Also his or Oistrakh in the Shostakovich concertos, especially the first of the two, deserve to be heard, even if the intensity of the music might not suit everyone. Similarly Rostropovich in the two cello concertos. There’s a convenient pairing of the first of each here.

The Barber concerto will give some light relief from the Russians, and Hilary Hahn’s recording is the one I’d suggest here.

And finally, for now :slight_smile: , on the baroque front…my suggestion on this front would be Vivaldi’s L’estro armonico set of concertos for one, two, and four violins. The sounds he creates with these instruments in combination is something quite revelatory if you’re more familiar with the soundworld of a solo 19th/20th century concerto.

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Thanks for all the suggestions, Dopers! What a selection to choose from!

Another question:

If you had to choose your absolute favorite artist/composer CD recording, what would it be?
Help me narrow it down to about 10-20 recordings. This could be a single CD or a double, triple or box set…and can you help me with a link to it?

What I am doing is ripping these CDs and putting them on my wife’s I-Touch that I got her for Christmas so she can take it with her anywhere. If it’s an LP, I think my oldest son’s LP converter to digital might work, but I am not sure how well…with instrumental CDs, I think something is going to get lost in the transfer and diminish the quality of the recording or end up not being played as much. So maybe we should stick to CDs.

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Oh another thing she does when she hears a violin being played…

I like listening to The Corrs because Andrea Corr has such a sultry voice and she sings some sexy tunes for a nice 1-2 combo in my head…when my wife hears it, she’s always bagging on Sharon Corr’s violin playing (which I think is quite nice myself). She mentions that she’s good at “first position” and that’s it…very little or no “third position” playing. I know it has something to do with finger positions on fingerboard, but other than that…I guess I’m just a sucker for good looking women singing and playing the tin whistle, violin, and bodhran.

Ok, enough of fantasizing over a three Irish sisters who are pop stars. I guess Irish music (traditional, modern, or pop) usually involves violins where players mostly/only use first position (btw, is there a second position?), and I am guessing that more advanced/talented artists master the third position and let me guess further that the artists mentioned in this thread are of this caliber…yes or no? Does any Doper here know what I am talking about and could also recommend some compositions where the artist is mastering the third position throughout the composition? Something that will make my wife say…“Damn, that is some good fingering going on there!”

Ok, that was my last sexual innuendo.

Thanks again, my fellow Dopers.

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First position uses the hand at the far end of the strings. In basic terms, each position involves shifting the hand one note further up the string, with various results. One, obviously, is the ability to play higher notes at the top of the range. It also offers various qualities of sound on particular strings. The movement of the hand up and down the string itself has a particular sound in between notes. And so on.

Yes, there’s second, fourth, fifth position and so on. Third position is the first to be learnt once you actually start shifting, offering more versatility than second without getting into various complications that arise when you want to get higher still. With each position up, the spacing of the fingers decreases, so all the muscle memory developed to be able to hit notes accurately has to be developed further, and it takes a hell of a lot of work to get to the top of the violin’s range in a listenable way!

Irish music, along with most other folk musics, uses the instrument in different ways, and yes, it rarely demands anything outside of first position. That is not to say that it is ‘less developed’ or any such thing, and there are physical actions which are second nature to kids learning the Irish fiddle in a traditional way which I simply can’t do.

Edit: regarding the Corrs, I’ll agree with her that it’s just bad violin playing, nothing to do with actual folk techniques.

‘Fingering hairy passages’ is always a good one…

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Quite simply, there’s no way I could pick out one single favourite!

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While I am as big of a CostCo fan as there is, no way I’d drop $3000 on a instrument through a regular retail store.

Three grand is more than enough to justify a trip to a music shop, even if out of town. Make a weekend of it. At the very least the string catalogs will send you 2-3 instruments with multiple bows to play on so you can mix and match and send the others back. When/if you go to purchase, her teacher will at least lead you in the right direction, though, more likely, teachers jump at the chance to try out new gear. :smiley: I just told my viola professor I was interested in a new bow…so he ordered 10 of them.

Unfortunately…yes. :rolleyes:

LOL…yeah. They’re pretty good. :smiley:

Recordings still? Almost all recordings suggested require a mastery of all positions.

If you’re looking for a “blow you away” recording I would suggest a recording of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto (which David Oistrakh COMPLETELY OWNS right here*) or the Sibelius Violin Concerto.

If she hasn’t seen The Red Violin, that’s a must too.

*The conductor is swinging a baseball bat. Also, for the music fans in the house, they cut to Shostakovich in the audience during the applause.

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Seconded, thirded, fourthed, and fifthed. I came into this thread to suggest the Sonatas and Partitas. I am not familiar with this recording, but these are truly masterpieces.

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Yes indeedy. Luckily, I live a fifteen minute walk away from the major dealer in the area, who I also have known since I was a kid. Any excuse to waste an afternoon trying out a gazillion fiddles, I’ll take it :slight_smile:

And I’d missed that comment about the CostCo violin until Cyberhwk’s reply, and I fully agree. It’s astonishing just how varied the instruments available are once you get into that price range, both modern and antique. You probably wouldn’t buy a car without test-driving many, and the right choice of violin should last longer than any car, and also won’t depreciate. (Mine was bought some fifteen years ago, and over that time it’s actually increased in value, real terms, by 50%.)

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I have talked to my wife’s tutor about violins, and he did recommend a couple places in Pasadena (SoCal) that he frequents to. I will ask him again the name of the place and maybe take a daytrip out there when she feels like it.

Right now, she was using her father’s violin which he got from his father back in the 30s I think…so it does have a lot of sentimental value to her, but it has its limits with producing quality of sound. This violin has been through a lot. When she started violin back in the 3rd grade (I actually knew her since 2nd grade), the 4th grade teacher who was a beast with children (the only non-nun teacher in a parochial school)…cracking knuckles with rulers, yanking ears (only once for me, thankfully!), and even hair pulling…was also an exceptional music teacher. She taught my wife how to play violin, but was brutal to my wife’s violin…breaking scrolls, fingerboards, dropping it…the poor piece had to be repaired over and over. But my wife’s persistence with that violin paid off (once it got fixed, of course) and she became a pretty good player up through high school. She shelved it though once college started…just not enough time to continue playing and improving.

Not enough time in college.
Not enough time when she got her first job.
Not enough time when we got married.
Not enough time when we have three kids.

TWENTY SIX years later, she feels the need to play again, and I wanted her to have this and supported her to do it all over again. The first thing she did was pull out her dad’s old violin, stored in an old case, inside of an old pillow case. She pulls it out and cries. It had a pretty nasty crack under the bridge, going towards the rounded bottom of the violin. It would be another 6 months before we could find someone capable of fixing it, and he did quite a superb job in doing it…she started lessons with a tutor who teaches many kids and adults here in the high desert, and she felt very comfortable with him, and he is very supportive of her attempt to regain what she has lost over the years. So much so, that our middle son took notice and wanted to play violin as well. There was a second violin that we had, but it was a low-end student type that was in worse shape than her dad’s violin. My son started with that one, but then wanted to also use Grandpa’s violin. My wife was ok with it as long as he understood that the violin is very valuable sentimentally, and to treat it with respect…

Two months later…my son drops it. And the crack reappears.

So, this violin is back with the repairman. And this repairman…he’s a bit eccentric…chain-smoker with lots of violin boards and harpsicords scattered throughout his house…50 or 60 violins, 12 harpsicords, and barrels (re: HUNDREDs) of bows, one recliner and desk with a stool and one TV…that’s it. But he’s very good at repairing violins, it just takes him a while to get to it…we haven’t heard from him in one month since we dropped it off. When my wife called, he tells her that he is manic-depressive and he’s been on an extensive downturn in his life right now…

Now you guys are caught up and understand that there may be a need for another violin. The Costco violin is returnable if it’s not to my wife’s liking, and they do have other models to choose from. I just thought that a Suzuki would be a good choice for that price. But I will not push for it until we see what’s available at the shops that the tutor recommended. He did say that the model was pretty good for that price, but he also cautioned me just like you did, Cyber and Gorilla. But I really won’t do anything until we find out what’s going on with her dad’s violin. Unfortunately, they are schleping along with the bad violin and making due with it. It really is sad to see them limited by it. As husband and father, I wish I could do more to help them, but I just don’t have the knowledge just yet to be of help. That’s why The Dope is my savior. Thanks again.

I also gave her a gift subscription to Strings magazine, she enjoys that as well…are there any other subscriptions or books that might be helpful?

Fourth and Fifth positions? Heh. Didn’t know that either. She must be keeping secrets from me!

Is “The Red Violin” in English and/or French? I saw one You Tube link that had it in english. Just wondering…and yes, my wife does speak French, too. I’m just too lazy for subtitles though.

Love the suggestions guys, keep it up!

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It’s in English, Italian, French, German, and Chinese. There’s no escaping the subtitles unless you’re a gifted linguist. (Tired pun intentionally avoided. The fingering was enough!)