Fritz Kreisler's 24th caprice has an excruciatingly beautiful artificial harmonics variation, truly breathtaking. Do yourself a favour and check it out
I'm familiar with it. Phillipe Quint (who also has courses on ToneBase, BTW) did it in his Paganini CD. I think Menuhin played the rest of the variations more convincingly, but that Harmonics variation is nice.
I can highly recommend Shunske Sato playing any Paganini on period violin. His concerto no 4 with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra is something special. I was in the orchestra and got to witness it for 8 performances and it was flawless and ravishinly beatiful like I never knew Paganini could be every single night.
Very informative video! Love the Ruggiero Ricci version! Ossy Renardy apparently recorded the Caprices on Paganini's violin. The Fritz Kreisler is really beautiful too. Also love Menuhin's version - but it should be noted that George Enescu was Menuhin's primary mentor and teacher. Didn’t know Yo Yo Ma's version, sounds very interesting. Primrose is amazing, no wonder he played with Heifetz. Not at all a fan of the electric guitar version.
I highly recommend you all take a listen to Ysaÿe’s arrangement (technically finished posthumously by his grandson). It’s a really neat take on this caprice. Laurent Korcia’s and Ricci’s recordings of it are both spectacular.
You guys should go check out Catalin Rotarus version on the double bass. Absolutely insane playing! Fun fact: Catalin also recorded Mozart's violin concerto no. 5 on the double bass
nice video. i like that you gave props to Ricci. yeah, he's a big subject,we could talk for hours. but anyway, i've thought that for the Paganini caprices, the polar opposite to Ricci's raw, blinding speed is Midor's recording. of course she has awesome chops and can play fast, but she approaches the caprices with the same care and consideration as if they were Mozart or Beethoven. every single note has purpose; nothing is just thrown away cavalierly.
I've listened to some of her recording. I know some people really like it, but it never quite did it for me. Maybe I should go listen again. Rabin's will always be GOAT for me
10:43 Me too. I thought the same before you said it. 11:20 You sound fine! I can hear you attending to each note pair, just like YM. I like it. Speed doesn't impress me - almost anyone can press the pedal to the floor but usually things fall off when they do.
Ehnes has long been one of my favorite violinists. I always thought of him as a kind of male Hilary Hahn, haha. Though I think I prefer his playing to hers, they are both standouts in their incredible technical accuracy and clarity of sound.
I actually tried to include a bit of that in the beginning, but it threw off the flow of the video, so unfortunately it was left on the cutting room floor. Of course, the relation of Liszt to Paganini is an important one in classical music history
15:50 Maybe Paganini made it too hard! 🤔😂 The guitar version does seem quite normal to me. (I speak from an unbiased position because I haven't yet devoted my life to playing it on violin 😆). Really really really great video Mr Tobiah - one of your best ever I reckon! 😃
I've got to the Menuhin version now. I'm really puzzled. Quite frankly, the tone of most of the violins up to this point, and Menuhin's mistuned octaves for the first statement of the theme, and his slow glissando tuned re-statement, sound to me like recordings of me sight-reading it - and I've only just got started with the instrument, and only have a cheap violin. I guess tons of finesse has been added to violin playing and recording since. A possible parallel: In the pipe organ world, Marcel Dupré was seen as a spectacular virtuoso, but we have recordings of him playing and they seem decidedly sloppy to me - no better than me playing in my teens (many years ago).
Menuhin is an interesting character, to be sure, but I would only really characterize some of the stuff in the very opening to be "out of tune" or "sloppy" in any significant way. His tone still possesses it's absolutely unique beauty, and his incredibly natural musicality shines through everything. In terms of technique he possesses a natural facility that is almost unmatched - the first variation after the initial theme is the most spritely of any recording I've every heard before or since. As for your comparison to the organist, many many people could play the opening "better," but I don't know anyone who could play the rest of it the way he did. The issue with Menuhin was that he probably more talent in his right pinky than most other violinists have in their entire bodies, even some of the best one's around today! BUT, Louis Persinger was not really a good teacher in giving any structure to Menuhin's playing or technique. He was never give scales or etudes to practice (aside from Paganini caprices, of course), and in one of his books he recalls playing for Ysaye as a child, who asked him to play an A-Major scale, at which he failed miserably. This eventually led to a crisis in twenties where he realized that he didn't know how he did what he did, and then suddenly he found he couldn't do it anymore. The man had to basically reteach himself to play, and he never quite recovered his abilities as an adult, which you can often hear in the shakiness of his bow arm in the bottom portion of the bow. He's truly a unique artist, one I dearly love and greatly admire, and unfortunately, the trade-off of everything being as pristine as possible means that we will likely never have a violinist like him again. Thankfully we do have his recordings. I'd highly suggest listening to his recording of the Paganini concerto. It's nearly technically perfect (with the Sauret cadenza to boot!), and has all of the classic Menuhin sound. One of the best recordings of the piece ever, IMO
are loud shifts and finger placements frowned upon in recordings? i guess it's difficult for me to remember the absence of something, but i feel like noisy fingers (at least on cello) are pretty common. maybe im thinking of live recordings
Today most recordings are meant to be absolute pristine examples of the music, so any extraneous noise is edited out or the performer seeks to avoid entirely. "Mistakes" as well, of any kind, are also eliminated through multiple takes and editing. This often gives students a false sense of other performer's perfection. Now, I personally like a lot of the "pristine" recordings, but I do miss the rawness that you can find in old recordings, particularly, where often the recording you hear was done in a single take, not several stitched together (Isaac Stern was notorious for stitching, as he didn't like to practice much after he reached the height of his career. I think I heard his Beethoven Concerto recording was made of something like 500+ different cuts stitched together)
@@andrewzhang8512 They used to have a phrase "earn with Stern," as if you were in an orchestra that was recording with Isaac Stern you were guaranteed to get some pretty big overtime pay
This video is amazing - thank you so much for sharing! Can I just point out a little something? It’s Ruggiero (or Ruggero if you want to be a little less old fashioned) Ricci, not Roger Richie… 😁
@@tonebaseviolin true, but ricci or menuhin are not strange, are they? Malmsteen or whoever is murdering it on electric quitar with a sort of rock band sure is weird. For unusual try Janouška brothers. They can certainly play it, and have their own take on it 😉👍 they are roma and well versed in classical, rom and jazz traditions. I think paganini would approve 😊
This person is not a professional. Anyone who can't spell "bowing" is not a professional or trained properly. Spelling the word "boeing" for the real term of "bowing" is plainly ludicrous.
Why would you even recomend your students to listen to recordings? Isnt it better if they form their musical opinion just from what is written in the notes, as Ricci did. I think thats the only way for you to express your own emotions, otherwise you are just copying other violinists emotions, or that you try to please others musical opinions
i think that view might place too much emphasis on doing it by one's self. if you are playing a piece, it is helpful to hear how others are doing it because it informs you on whether or not you like how it sounds, and gives you a broader spectrum of options from the jump. it doesn't mean you're copying, it means you're borrowing the tools of those before you to make your own work of art
@@groezy the form is given by the composer and its all in the notes. You dont have to play like the norm, you just have to follow the composers instructions then you are correct. And after that you can add your own musicality. I think there is a danger of playing like everyone else. Sometimes a common musical perception becomes a cliche, and it doesn’t have to be the right one for your expression
@@groezy and Im not talking about being trying to come up with new crazy ideas or trying to be unique. Im talking about to express your own emotions through the composers will
i don’t think he’s suggesting copying others , just an educational reference. I think it’d be useful to learn a piece with no reference whatsoever … but that’d be a bit peculiar to do that with all your music. A painter is not going to be hampered just because they looked at some impressionism and abstraction. A violin student needs to hear a teacher vibrate to even know how to begin to create such a sound. A rock player would be pretty out there, if someone handed them a distortion pedal , but they’d never heard a rock band before. So , i get your point about originality, it’s a good one. Some listening to other interpretations though, is probably very helpful to develop one’s own style. Growth is difficult in a vacuum. :)
Fritz Kreisler's 24th caprice has an excruciatingly beautiful artificial harmonics variation, truly breathtaking. Do yourself a favour and check it out
I'm familiar with it. Phillipe Quint (who also has courses on ToneBase, BTW) did it in his Paganini CD. I think Menuhin played the rest of the variations more convincingly, but that Harmonics variation is nice.
What a great, interesting, and informative video!! 😃
ToneBase's new presenter is particularly engaging!
I can highly recommend Shunske Sato playing any Paganini on period violin. His concerto no 4 with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra is something special. I was in the orchestra and got to witness it for 8 performances and it was flawless and ravishinly beatiful like I never knew Paganini could be every single night.
Big Sato fan for his Barock stuff!
me too
Very informative video! Love the Ruggiero Ricci version! Ossy Renardy apparently recorded the Caprices on Paganini's violin. The Fritz Kreisler is really beautiful too. Also love Menuhin's version - but it should be noted that George Enescu was Menuhin's primary mentor and teacher. Didn’t know Yo Yo Ma's version, sounds very interesting. Primrose is amazing, no wonder he played with Heifetz. Not at all a fan of the electric guitar version.
I highly recommend you all take a listen to Ysaÿe’s arrangement (technically finished posthumously by his grandson). It’s a really neat take on this caprice. Laurent Korcia’s and Ricci’s recordings of it are both spectacular.
Tobiah, I really like your realness in this video e.g. seeing your emotional reaction to the raw clicky muscular "not allowed anymore" recording! 😃
I'm surprised you didn't mention the wonderful playing of Heifetz playing the 24th caprice.
You guys should go check out Catalin Rotarus version on the double bass. Absolutely insane playing!
Fun fact: Catalin also recorded Mozart's violin concerto no. 5 on the double bass
I'll check it out!
Agreed. It is beautiful.
Delightful. Plse consider accompanied versions by Mendelssohn and R Schumann,among others. Great out of the box thinking!
nice video. i like that you gave props to Ricci. yeah, he's a big subject,we could talk for hours. but anyway, i've thought that for the Paganini caprices, the polar opposite to Ricci's raw, blinding speed is Midor's recording. of course she has awesome chops and can play fast, but she approaches the caprices with the same care and consideration as if they were Mozart or Beethoven. every single note has purpose; nothing is just thrown away cavalierly.
I've listened to some of her recording. I know some people really like it, but it never quite did it for me. Maybe I should go listen again. Rabin's will always be GOAT for me
10:43 Me too. I thought the same before you said it.
11:20 You sound fine! I can hear you attending to each note pair, just like YM. I like it. Speed doesn't impress me - almost anyone can press the pedal to the floor but usually things fall off when they do.
I practice thirds scales every day. It's doesn't 100% cross-over into playing this variation perfectly after only 5 minutes of practice, but it helps
Tobiah, you are very, very good at this.
James Ehnes Playing Posture Reminds Me of Hilary Hahn.
I'm Now a Fan of Both.
Ehnes has long been one of my favorite violinists. I always thought of him as a kind of male Hilary Hahn, haha. Though I think I prefer his playing to hers, they are both standouts in their incredible technical accuracy and clarity of sound.
Great video!
Seeing as how you gave a couple shoutouts to a few different arrangements of the Caprice, any thoughts on the one made by Ferenc Liszt?
I actually tried to include a bit of that in the beginning, but it threw off the flow of the video, so unfortunately it was left on the cutting room floor. Of course, the relation of Liszt to Paganini is an important one in classical music history
Ruggiero Ricci’s “The Glory of Cremona” is absolutely amazing.
If you wanted to show how it inspired, you could have showed a Rachmanninoff version a a Liszt version of some of Paganini’s pieces
Are there any recordings of Paganini playing the Caprices when he was performing during his various tours in European countries???
Lol, if only
15:50 Maybe Paganini made it too hard! 🤔😂 The guitar version does seem quite normal to me. (I speak from an unbiased position because I haven't yet devoted my life to playing it on violin 😆).
Really really really great video Mr Tobiah - one of your best ever I reckon! 😃
I honestly thought you were going to discuss the ending. There is a lot to discuss about that!
How could you forget Leonid Kogan?......
I've got to the Menuhin version now. I'm really puzzled. Quite frankly, the tone of most of the violins up to this point, and Menuhin's mistuned octaves for the first statement of the theme, and his slow glissando tuned re-statement, sound to me like recordings of me sight-reading it - and I've only just got started with the instrument, and only have a cheap violin. I guess tons of finesse has been added to violin playing and recording since.
A possible parallel: In the pipe organ world, Marcel Dupré was seen as a spectacular virtuoso, but we have recordings of him playing and they seem decidedly sloppy to me - no better than me playing in my teens (many years ago).
Menuhin is an interesting character, to be sure, but I would only really characterize some of the stuff in the very opening to be "out of tune" or "sloppy" in any significant way. His tone still possesses it's absolutely unique beauty, and his incredibly natural musicality shines through everything. In terms of technique he possesses a natural facility that is almost unmatched - the first variation after the initial theme is the most spritely of any recording I've every heard before or since. As for your comparison to the organist, many many people could play the opening "better," but I don't know anyone who could play the rest of it the way he did.
The issue with Menuhin was that he probably more talent in his right pinky than most other violinists have in their entire bodies, even some of the best one's around today! BUT, Louis Persinger was not really a good teacher in giving any structure to Menuhin's playing or technique. He was never give scales or etudes to practice (aside from Paganini caprices, of course), and in one of his books he recalls playing for Ysaye as a child, who asked him to play an A-Major scale, at which he failed miserably. This eventually led to a crisis in twenties where he realized that he didn't know how he did what he did, and then suddenly he found he couldn't do it anymore. The man had to basically reteach himself to play, and he never quite recovered his abilities as an adult, which you can often hear in the shakiness of his bow arm in the bottom portion of the bow.
He's truly a unique artist, one I dearly love and greatly admire, and unfortunately, the trade-off of everything being as pristine as possible means that we will likely never have a violinist like him again. Thankfully we do have his recordings.
I'd highly suggest listening to his recording of the Paganini concerto. It's nearly technically perfect (with the Sauret cadenza to boot!), and has all of the classic Menuhin sound. One of the best recordings of the piece ever, IMO
Menuhin’s humanity in his sound is unparalleled to my ears. Not a ‘ perfect’ violinist compared to Heifetz but that sounds sends chills down my spine
Whay about Roman Kim ?
Watch Luca fanfoni from Italy!
are loud shifts and finger placements frowned upon in recordings? i guess it's difficult for me to remember the absence of something, but i feel like noisy fingers (at least on cello) are pretty common. maybe im thinking of live recordings
Today most recordings are meant to be absolute pristine examples of the music, so any extraneous noise is edited out or the performer seeks to avoid entirely. "Mistakes" as well, of any kind, are also eliminated through multiple takes and editing. This often gives students a false sense of other performer's perfection. Now, I personally like a lot of the "pristine" recordings, but I do miss the rawness that you can find in old recordings, particularly, where often the recording you hear was done in a single take, not several stitched together (Isaac Stern was notorious for stitching, as he didn't like to practice much after he reached the height of his career. I think I heard his Beethoven Concerto recording was made of something like 500+ different cuts stitched together)
@@tonebaseviolin wow that must have been a nightmare for the editors xd
@@andrewzhang8512 They used to have a phrase "earn with Stern," as if you were in an orchestra that was recording with Isaac Stern you were guaranteed to get some pretty big overtime pay
This video is amazing - thank you so much for sharing! Can I just point out a little something? It’s Ruggiero (or Ruggero if you want to be a little less old fashioned) Ricci, not Roger Richie… 😁
Dying because of that clicks 😭😭🍭😃
"Mario bad guy music" 😂😂
I’m a fiddle player, but I really enjoy your videos
Glad to hear!
Wow! I didn't know Miles Teller plays violin 😂
Rooster from Top Gun Maverick plays a hell of a violin.
I wish my mustache would come in that much 😅
The last one cool, but "SACRILIGIUS".
Not meaning to be unkind or hypercritical, but are you SURE you're pronouncing "Ruggiero Ricci" correctly?
For me, none you list are even close to heifetz
Well, the video IS called the "strangest recordings" not the best recordings
@@tonebaseviolin true, but ricci or menuhin are not strange, are they? Malmsteen or whoever is murdering it on electric quitar with a sort of rock band sure is weird. For unusual try Janouška brothers. They can certainly play it, and have their own take on it 😉👍 they are roma and well versed in classical, rom and jazz traditions. I think paganini would approve 😊
@@aranos6269 Ricci and Menuhin are particularly unique. I'd say. "Unique" doesn't necessarily bring clicks, however, so strange is the word
And dud you hear Janouška?
This person is not a professional. Anyone who can't spell "bowing" is not a professional or trained properly. Spelling the word "boeing" for the real term of "bowing" is plainly ludicrous.
Why would you even recomend your students to listen to recordings? Isnt it better if they form their musical opinion just from what is written in the notes, as Ricci did. I think thats the only way for you to express your own emotions, otherwise you are just copying other violinists emotions, or that you try to please others musical opinions
anyone can come up with novel ideas, but you must show understanding of the form for your ideas to be respected. this is true not just in music.
i think that view might place too much emphasis on doing it by one's self.
if you are playing a piece, it is helpful to hear how others are doing it because it informs you on whether or not you like how it sounds, and gives you a broader spectrum of options from the jump. it doesn't mean you're copying, it means you're borrowing the tools of those before you to make your own work of art
@@groezy the form is given by the composer and its all in the notes. You dont have to play like the norm, you just have to follow the composers instructions then you are correct. And after that you can add your own musicality. I think there is a danger of playing like everyone else. Sometimes a common musical perception becomes a cliche, and it doesn’t have to be the right one for your expression
@@groezy and Im not talking about being trying to come up with new crazy ideas or trying to be unique. Im talking about to express your own emotions through the composers will
i don’t think he’s suggesting copying others , just an educational reference.
I think it’d be useful to learn a piece with no reference whatsoever … but that’d be a bit peculiar to do that with all your music.
A painter is not going to be hampered just because they looked at some impressionism and abstraction.
A violin student needs to hear a teacher vibrate to even know how to begin to create such a sound.
A rock player would be pretty out there, if someone handed them a distortion pedal , but they’d never heard a rock band before.
So , i get your point about originality, it’s a good one. Some listening to other interpretations though, is probably very helpful to develop one’s own style. Growth is difficult in a vacuum.
:)
Dafuq is "Ragerrigy"?