What are your favorite violin works?

[euphoni]

Hey gang,

What are some of your absolute favorite violin solos out there to listen to and/or play? I'm putting together some strictly violin transcriptions for a recital and I was just wondering what great works I'm forgetting about. The harder the better =) I love pain! LOL

On the docket:

Caprice #24, Paganini
Gypsy Airs, Sarasate
Largo from Winter of the Four Seasons, Vivaldi
Mov. 3 from Violin Concerto, Khatchaturian
Meditation from Thais, Massenet
Carmen Fantasy, Saratate

Thanks!

[The Jackson]

Definitely the third movement of the Violin Concerto by John Adams.

(I would LOVE to hear a tuba transcription of that.)


ALSO! The Toccata for Violin and Player Piano by Conlon Nancarrow. There's another awesome one.

[TexTuba]

Scherzo Tarantelle by Wieniawski

[peter birch]

Speigel im Speigel by Arvo Part, long notes with a sense of almost absolute stillness, but for fireworks, don't forget the mendelsohnn violin conerto

[Arkietuba]

Tchaik. Violin Concerto in D

Though the last movement may not be possible with all those double/triple stops...haha

[tubafatness]

Philip Glass' Violin Concerto.

The Mystery [Rosary] sonatas of Heinrich Biber

This one wouldn't work, but I am a fan of Luigi Nono's La Lontananza Nostalgica Utopica Futura.

[OldsRecording]

Barber Violin Concerto. I like the Beethoven concerto as well.

[imperialbari]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWNCbpwC-PQ

is a bit too freaky to be my real favourite.

Mozart #4&5 and Beethoven are special to me.

Klaus

[Todd S. Malicoate]

Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso - Camille Saint-Saëns

Great single-movement work. I've never done this (as a pianist) with a violinist, but I have performed it for concerto competitions a couple of times with mallet percussionists.

I don't know if this piece would lend itself well to a transcription or not without looking at it again - it seems very "range-y" with wide leaps all over the place. Unlike many solo pieces for the violin, there is not a great deal of double and triple stops, but there is some use of it. There are, unfortunately, a lot of very fast wide arpeggios that are easy to play on the violin but tend to sound awful on brass instruments.

A FREE score for violin and piano can be found here (scroll down a bit for the piano part).

[cambrook]

4'33" - John Cage

[oedipoes]

the John Williams Schindler's List thing, movie recording by Itzhak Perlman.

[Wyvern]

the John Williams Schindler's List thing, movie recording by Itzhak Perlman.

I imagine that would sound great on tuba, although a display of lyricism, rather than acrobatics.

[THE TUBA]

the John Williams Schindler's List thing, movie recording by Itzhak Perlman.

I imagine that would sound great on tuba, although a display of lyricism, rather than acrobatics.

Theme from Schindler's List, Miraphone Tuba Quartet

[djwesp]

Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso - Camille Saint-Saëns

Great single-movement work. I've never done this (as a pianist) with a violinist, but I have performed it for concerto competitions a couple of times with mallet percussionists.

I don't know if this piece would lend itself well to a transcription or not without looking at it again - it seems very "range-y" with wide leaps all over the place. Unlike many solo pieces for the violin, there is not a great deal of double and triple stops, but there is some use of it. There are, unfortunately, a lot of very fast wide arpeggios that are easy to play on the violin but tend to sound awful on brass instruments.

A FREE score for violin and piano can be found here (scroll down a bit for the piano part).

THANK YOU TODD. I was a gasp when i read these first posts and this piece wasn't in there.


I do in fact own a legal tuba transcription of this piece done by Volta "Andy" Anders some 20+ years ago. The piece is done in both the orchestra key and the transcription for flute key.


It is probably the hardest tuba transcription i have ever seen.

[MaryAnn]

Barber and Sibelius violin concertos.

MA

[Steve Marcus]

Bach Partita No. 3 in E, BWV 1006. I've heard the Preludio performed by a wind instrument; in a strictly solo performance, breaths must be taken that obliterate the perpetuum mobile of the violin original. An accompanied arrangement of the Preludio and the final movement in 6/8 could have the piano take the occasional phrase and then let the tuba/euphonium return without losing the pulse.

Bach did transcribe the Preludio himself for his own solo keyboard performance, and also orchestrated it for the Sinfonia to one of his Cantatas. Rachmaninoff also transcribed it for solo piano, but he added lots of interesting interweaving counterlines and harmonic twists. Stokowski, who sometimes seems to have transcribed everything for full orchestra, had his hand at this piece, too.

[tbn.al]

I do in fact own a legal tuba transcription of this piece done by Volta "Andy" Anders some 20+ years ago. The piece is done in both the orchestra key and the transcription for flute key.


It is probably the hardest tuba transcription i have ever seen.

Did Andy ever play it?

[djwesp]

I do in fact own a legal tuba transcription of this piece done by Volta "Andy" Anders some 20+ years ago. The piece is done in both the orchestra key and the transcription for flute key.


It is probably the hardest tuba transcription i have ever seen.

Did Andy ever play it?

I wouldn't doubt it. Andy, as you know, is an amazing musician and an awesome man. By the time I arrived to receive his instruction, he had stopped playing. At that point in time I was not a good enough musician or tubist to handle a piece like that, so I'm not sure how I ended up with it.

I stumbled on it about 2 years after my departure from Arkansas Tech and played it in 08'.

We still keep in touch and there are truly few people in the world like him.

[DonShirer]

I have a fondness for the violin solo in Scheherezade. I know its program music but it still grabs me. The third movement of Beethoven's Concerto in D is good as well.

[Tuba Guy]

4'33"