Apropos of nothing...

[matt_doyle]

...can anyone name some really good violin solos? Classical would be preferred, but modern ins fine too.

Comments

[lassarina]

My cellist boyfriend provides the following:

Brahms - A Minor Concerto
"Czardas" - he thinks it's by Bizet

He also indicates Bach wrote a bunch of concertos and Paganini has some pieces as well. Also Hindemith.

[watersword]

Am sending a violinist friend your way!

[matt_doyle]

Awesome!

[shanaqui]

My favourite violinist is Seth Lakeman, but the only instrumental piece he's done is Cape Clear.

[zopyrus]

Hi, I am the violinist friend! I am just going to fling a lot of titles at you and hope that some of them will be of interest. All are classical; some of them (Prokofiev and Bernstein) are also modern.

Pure solo violin (nothing else is playing):

+ Bach's 6 Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin
+ Ysaye's 6 Sonatas and Partitas (owes a lot to Bach, sometimes even with long quotes)
+ Prokofiev's Sonata for Solo Violin (op. 115)

Solo violin with orchestra/piano backup:

+ any of the major violin concertos, ie by Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Brahms, Beethoven, Sibelius
+ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, by Camille Saint-Saens
+ any of the Mozart violin concertos
+ Vivaldi's Four Seasons
+ Sicilienne, by Maria Theresia von Paradis
+ Meditation from Thais, by Jules Massenet
+ Brahms' Sonatas for Violin and Piano
+ Bernstein's "Serenade after Plato's Symposium"
+ Tchaikovsky's "Souvenir d'un lieu cher"
+ anything on Arthur Grumiaux' recording, "Favorite Violin Encores"

Pretty much everything on the list can be found via quick youtube search, but let me know if you want more specifics!

[matt_doyle]

Thanks!

[matt_doyle]

Quick youtube searches are exactly what I was hoping for! Thank you very much. I'm writing about a character who's a violinist, and was trying to figure out some pieces he might play.

[matt_doyle]

That was a very excellent couple hours of listening. Thanks again.