[12/2/2011] Preview: Tonight's little violin solo may be MORE fun for you if you don't recognize it, or who's playing it (continued)

Here's our passage, leading up to the outburst of the main theme of the rondo on the next score page. Note that the only tempo change called for by Tchaikovsky is the little ritard (slowdown) in the next-to-last bar. One could argue that Violinist A is the only one of our soloists who plays this solo "correctly." (UPDATE: I've redone the score-page graphic, so that it not only is more readable but now can be expanded if you click on it.)


WE'VE ALREADY HEARD HOW DIFFERENTLY THIS SOLO
CAN BE PLAYED. HERE ARE SOME MORE POSSIBILITIES . . .

Violinist C

For this performance you might actually guess, um, Violinist A (for the benefit of readers who haven't guessed his/her identity); it starts even quicker! But Violinist C's tone is a little riper -- in contrast with that eerily effortless-seeming and imperturbably luminous sound produced by Violinist A (and nobody else I've ever heard). More importantly, notice that Violinist C, while not indulging him/herself as richly as Violinist B, does eventually broaden the pace to indulge the music a little. (Violinist A clearly believes that schmaltzy clowning here spoils rather than adds to the fun.)

Violinist D

If you guess from this scrap that Violinist D is a performer of exceptional taste and poise, you've got it. Without any sense of excess, he/she leaves little feeling that expressive possibilities have been left unexplored.

Violinist E

Another highly tasteful player is Violinist E, who infuses the passage with a bounce and spring very much his/her own.

Violinist F

If You've Got It, Flaunt It Dept.: Violinist F happens to be capable of producing a voluminous body of sound, and naturally scales this solo accordingly.


NOW LET'S BACK UP A BIT AND ALSO
CONTINUE ONWARD A BIT FARTHER

As promised here's our little solo again, first as played by Violinist A, but starting now at the formal opening of the movement (which isn't actually the "beginning," but that's a story for Sunday).

Violinist A
(from the start of the movement)


Now we're going to start again with Violinist B (and friends), and this time continue on into the rondo.

Violinist B
(from the start into the rondo proper)



DID YOU THINK I'D SEND YOU AWAY WITHOUT HEARING
WHAT COMES NEXT? (OKAY, I DID CONSIDER IT)


David Oistrakh plays the finale of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with Gennady Rozhdestvensky conducting the Moscow Philharmonic in September 1968. Our little solo comes at 0:12. (Afterward, at 10:01 note Dmitri Shostakovich contributing to the thunderous applause.)

Oh yes, did I not mention that we're listening to the start of the finale of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto? Oops, I'm sure I meant to.


OH, YOU'RE WONDERING WHO OUR SOLOISTS ARE? LET'S
HEAR VIOLINISTS A AND B PLAY THE WHOLE MOVEMENT

TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35:
iii. Allegro vivacissimo

Violinist A
Jascha Heifetz, violin; Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded Apr. 19, 1957 [audio link]

Violinist B
Isaac Stern, violin; Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy, cond. Columbia/CBS/Sony, recorded Mar. 23, 1958 [audio link]


AS FOR VIOLINISTS C THROUGH F, CHECK BACK SUNDAY . . .

. . . when we'll be poking around this blessedly happy creation, the Tchaikovsky D major Violin Concerto, with a hat tip to its glorious D major violin concerto predecessors.


RETURN TO THE BEGINNING OF THE POST

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