[jacksonplayer]

I don't know how many violin aficionados there are here, but check out this vintage clip of the great Soviet violinist Leonid Kogan playing the Carmen Fantasy by Franz Waxman. It's 10 minutes long, but you definitely want to watch to the end to see some amazing musical fireworks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HaZMCD6lKM

Pablo Sarasate wrote the more familiar Carmen Fantasy (with a great recording by Itzhak Perlman), but Waxman's version is heavier on violin virtuosity and was commissioned in the 1940's for legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz.

Also, here's a performance of one of my alltime favorites: the 1st movement of Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 1. Mellow, but very disturbing. And toward the end check out some of the most amazing arpeggios ever written.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO-qm9QN3mc

[Project2501]

Very cool stuff!!

[Ancestor]

Ah, that was beautiful. I haven't made it to the second video yet, because youtube just went down. I remember this guy from my Art of the Violin DVD.

His performance is unbelievable - the double stops, the staccato and all those blistering passages toward the end. Plus, he tone is wonderfully captured on this video.

I can't say enough good about this. A gigantic thank you for posting these links.

[Desecrated]

really nice, but it dident make me jump out of my chair.

[Oogadee Boogadee]

sweet. my wife is going to love these (she's a violist)

[jacksonplayer]

Originally Posted by Desecrated

really nice, but it dident make me jump out of my chair.

Yeah, I can understand. Once you get into this type of thing, though, you're hooked. Hearing the way violinists handle legato phrasing really affected my playing, in addition to the more ridiculously complex stuff like you find in Paganini.

Originally Posted by Ancestor

His performance is unbelievable - the double stops, the staccato and all those blistering passages toward the end. Plus, he tone is wonderfully captured on this video.

The amazing thing is, Kogan was trapped behind the Iron Curtain when this piece was written and didn't have access to the score until many years later. He made his own performing version by transcribing Heifetz's RCA recording note by note.

When he finally got to see the real thing he actually preferred his own version, which contains some differences and requires a bit more 'robust' technique.

I'm a big Heifetz fan, as well, but all of the video of him on YouTube is rather dodgy stuff from the last part of his career. One particular egregious example is the video of him doing the 24th Caprice *with really bad piano accompaniment*.

[Oogadee Boogadee]

After picking my and dorking around on my wife's viola, this stuff isn't exactly easy. being able to do vibrato correctly, alone, is very hard to get, let alone master. the craziest guitar playing isn't even close to even "sub-craziest" violin playing, IMO.

[jacksonplayer]

Originally Posted by Oogadee Boogadee

After picking my and dorking around on my wife's viola, this stuff isn't exactly easy. being able to do vibrato correctly, alone, is very hard to get, let alone master. the craziest guitar playing isn't even close to even "sub-craziest" violin playing, IMO.

If you haven't started studying violin by about age 10, you're too late--at least to become really good. I've picked up my grandfather's old fiddle on occasion, and all I can manage is a horrifying screech.

Viola's a little bit better that way just because it has a longer scale, but we guitarists still have it way easier.

Here's some nice viola work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hG-1nHjMnI

[Mastodon]

Oh man that first video was cool.

Somewhat off topic, but this is my favorite Looney Tunes cartoon.

Rhapsody Rabbit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmvf4...h=bugs%20bunny

The Hungarian Rhapsodies own.

[Jerich]

Bela bartok is one of my favorite classical musicians...It was awesome to see someone play it verses always hearing it I love his Violin Concerto...but i'd rather see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMZ_4...elated&search= playing it.....