Music for Solo Violin

[Kernos]

The only really solo violin music I recall and love are the Paganini Caprices - but these should he heard and seen live for the best appreciation.

Most solo violin music I know are Violin sonatas with piano accompaniment. The best, IMO are actually duets for violin and piano.

My all time favorite is Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata which I sing along with and have tried the piano part. It gets a bit tough here and their. I also like the Spring, of course.

What solo violin music do you recommend for our personal collections?

[pobble]

I don't know them terribly well, but I think the Bach Partitas for solo violin are worthy of attention (and enormously difficult to play).
Some violin sonatas I've played and liked were the Franck violin sonata and the Elgar violin sonata.

[Paladin]

I also like the Bach set of 6 Partitas. I have the CD of the old recording of George Enescu (who, being endowed with photographic memory, could play virtually any classical piece from memory!). It has a scratchiness to it due to the age of the recording, but...it has more soul than any other recording of these pieces that I have ever heard.

[Kernos]

Bach with soul - I would love it! I like Bach played with a lot of rubato, else it becomes annoying to me. I have problems with old recordings and live recordings. I find the extraneous noises very bothersome and limit my purchases for things I study, like Schnabel's Beethoven Sonata set and Rachmaninoff's set.

Could you recommend a modern recording of these?

[Lily]

I have Perlman playing the Bach Sonatas and Partitas. Pureness, absolute perfection, little to no vibrato (I think you are mixing terms here) Kernos, sorry, it is not "done" anymore for baroque.

And of course you are absolutely right about a classical duo Sonata being a duet. The piano does not take second place anymore.

[Kernos]

I love Perlman. I actually met him once back in the '70s when I lived in DC. My best friend there was a violin teacher who a student was with Itzhak at Julliard studying under Dorothy Delay. We went to a concert at Kennedy Center and he played the Mendelssohn. We had about a 15 minute chat— a highlight of my life.

I think he is perhaps the greatest living violinist. I shall try the album which was remastered in 2005.