Dance Macabre: Sefe Emreh Iliki

 It is October!

Antonio Bertali: Ciacconi, Alana Youssefian, Voices Of Music, Baroque Violin

Voices Of Music website (click)

Vivaldi Concerto In D Major RV 212 "St. Antonio" Alana Youseffian And Voices Of Music

Alana Youseffian will thrill your heart with this performance. Watch the other musicians as she plays the Cadenza. Especially, watch the cellist, who is about to burst as Alana plays harmonics beyond the fingerboard.  

Schindler's List, John Williams; Simone Lamsma, Violin; Davida Scheffers, English Horn

When Spielberg asked John Williams to write the score for Schindler’s List he showed him an early cut of the movie. Williams stood up and walked out of the screening room. He came back in a few minutes later crying and said “you need someone better than me to write music for this.” And Spielberg said “I know, but everyone better than you is dead.”

How We Got Through The Winter

 I bet we have watched this video at least once every day for three months. Tchaikovsky was cruelly criticized by a critic when he wrote this, including the nasty remark that "you can smell the vodka." Well, wake up and smell the vodka! I remember the first time I heard this when we were taking the kid to Carbondale every week for violin and orchestra, and it was a real jolt. One of my favorite pieces. You gotta wonder how the male virtuosos are able to perform this piece dressed in a monkey suit. Pour a cup of coffee and buckle in before you hit Play!

Tuesday Turbo Boost

Itzhak Perlman, hijacked from one of his albums for YouTube,




Leila Josefiwicz, 1991.


If you listen to both of these performances you will note that about a minute of the Praeludium is missing from Leila's video. I seriously doubt that she played it that way, and I think it was dropped on the cutting room floor to abbreviate the piece for the unwashed masses. Anyhow, watch her anyway, to see the energy that a violinist must put into a piece like this. Leila was only thirteen years old when this was recorded in 1991. Fritz Kreisler had a successful career going in America when the Great War began, and he belonged to a regiment in his native Austria. What would you do? He went home and fought Russians until he was mustered out due to illness. That was OK until the Lusitania was torpedoed, and then he became an evil Hun in the eyes of America. His friend John McCormick stuck by him, and eventually his fans came back.

Tuesday Turbo

Ragtime Annie calls for a double.

Tuesday Turbo Boost

Turkey Creek String Band. Listen 'til you can smile like these kids.

Not My Victrola Guest Fiddler Edition

I'm in a mood for violin right now, so I went looking for Kreisler pieces, and I found this very well practiced young lady on YouTube. Her notes: Kreisler: Liebesleid and Liebesfreud. Duncan Recital, Rice University (Houston TX). 1/10/8. Sae Niwa (violin) Kana Mimaki (piano).

Video posted by kanamimaki.

"If You Can Make It For A Dime, And Sell It For A Dollar...

...there's bound to be a lot of liars in the business." ( from The Furniture Doctor, George Grotz, Doubleday, 1962) This photo from the cover of Mizzou's Alumni Association Magazine from Summer of 2009 shows a common, frustrating problem that plagues violinists and fiddlers: gunky rosin buildup under the strings, on the body of the fiddle and the fingerboard. This stuff sets up and the violin has to go into the shop to have it removed with a secret process in the backroom where no-one is allowed to watch.

EJ's violin used to have this problem, too, (Photo Credit: St. Louis Symphony) until the light came on in my head one night long ago as we used the violin polish purchased in the same shop as the violin. We realized that the little bottle of miracle polish was actually removing varnish as we used it to put a shine on the fiddle! We went into research mode to learn about violin finishes, and polishes. The most useful information at the time came from "The Furniture Doctor," and we soon passed on what we found to the other violinists in our group of string friends.

Most violins are finished with a shellac formula, which will be modified by the violin maker to include some resins to toughen it, but it is still mostly shellac, which is soluble in alcohol. This type of finish is great for violins, because it can easily be repaired, re-amalgamated, stripped, replaced, or added to. It dries fast, too, so it doesn't pick up dust and lint while the finish is curing in the shop.

The polish sold to you by violin shops is an oil product which will leave a nice shine on the violin, plus water to help pick up dirt as you rub your fiddle, plus a little soap, and enough alcohol to make the oil and water mix with the soap when you shake it up. Leave the lid off the polish while it sits in the sun, and soon, the ingredients don't stay mixed so well, because the alcohol evaporates. The alcohol insures that the violin owner has to bring the fiddle in occasionally to have the finish restored, because the more you polish, the faster your shellac finish is wiped away. The oil which gives you the nice shine makes rosin stick, and the proud violin owner must take it to the shop to have it cleaned.

This type of product looks so innocent, but it actually hurts what it is sold to protect, and it provides a steady string of return customer visits for violin shop owners. Who knew? What should you use on your stringed instruments? Paste wax. We touched up the damage ourselves, (after much research) and began using Simoniz car wax with great results. The finish could be dusted easily after playing sessions with no more annoying rosin buildup. If your wax coats build up too much after a few years, the wax can be removed with a bit of mineral spirits. Hard paste wax is difficult to find on most store shelves nowadays. The last time we needed some we found good paste wax in Sears with their wood finishing supplies. Keep the lid on tight when it is not being used, because it will turn into a brick pretty quickly if the mineral spirits are allowed to escape.

Not My Victrola

Pax41 uploaded this excellent recording of Fritz Kreisler.

Crankin' It Up

This week I pulled out some records I had previously posted that were recorded with the old microphone. I re-recorded them to the hard drive with the new mike and replaced the uploads on YouTube. This record was made by A C Eck Robertson in 1922.

Might As Well Have The Best

EJ started on the violin at a very young age, and he played with the SIU orchestra when he was in high school. We made lots of round trips from the farm to Carbondale during his junior high and high school years. During one of the orchestra practices this piece by Tchaikovsky popped up, played by an excellent soloist, right in front of me; it was the first time I had heard it, and it took my feelings for the violin to a new level. Through the magic of YouTube we can not only listen to Heifetz play it, we can watch him up close at the same time. Open another tab for your morning surfing while this plays; it's a long one.

Crankin' It Up

Here is a little change of pace for our Friday selection. Minuet in G, by Beethoven is what we used to call 'Long Hair' music when I was a kid. I wonder if people still use that term. This record has been in the cabinet for many years, and this is the first time we have played it. The artist, Kathleen Parlow, is pictured below. Click Here to read about her.

Not My Victrola

Kennedy always blows me away when I listen to him. I found some videos this morning of him playing the Bach violin concertos, and they are so good that I have to share them with you. These videos are all three movements of the Bach Violin Concerto #1. Put them on to play and open another tab to do your surfing today.

Christmas Not My Victrola

Click over to YouTube to check out Ben Chan's other videos. He and his brother will go far.

Christmas Not My Victrola