who is your favorite violinist... (ex. Karen Briggs, Vanessa Mae, Lilia Josefowicz??)

[BrahmsOpus77]

Doesn't anyone listen to the masters? Oistrahk, Elman, and Heifetz?

How can Vanessa Mae, who has been known to play underwater, even compare with The Greats?

[A. Bigler]

As my favorite classical violinists all have been mentioned (Kreisler, Grumiaux, Vengerov), I would like to add some fiddle players that in my humble opinion have taken fiddle playing to new heights:

Sean Keane (Chieftains) and Frankie Gavin (De Dannan) for traditional irish fiddle playing at it's best

and

Eileen Ivers who's last album "Crossing the bridge" brings to me simply the most exiting fiddle playing I have ever heard.

[lineman]

Jay Ungar, Mark O'Connor and Kenny Baker

[the fiddler of dooney]

originaly posted by Ben:

Forgot about Mutter, her Beethoven sonatas are great.

Shouldn't we all say Nicolo Paganini?

I´m sorry, but I never heard him play!

I´ve heard many great players on recording, but only Nigel Kennedy live.

Live is allways better than any recording, so I have to say Nigel is it!

[Irene]

Has anyone ever heard Robert McDuffie?

He's an American violinist.

He is not my favorite, but I think he is worth paying attention to.

I heard him play the Barber concerto with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (I think that's the name of the group) about a year ago. I was extremely, extremely impressed, and I've heard a lot of live performers.

[Lydia Leong]

McDuffie just did a recording of the Rozsa concerto. It's spectacular -- I'm inclined to think it's even better than the Heifetz recording (which I've seen slammed by a variety of reviewers, but which I'm nonetheless very fond of).

[Griffin]

Some of my favorites:

Martin Hayes, Kevin Burke (Bothy Band, Patrick Street, and Open House), Jerry Holland, Johnny Hardy (Old Blind Dogs), Johnny Cunningham (Silly Wizard), Mairead NiMhaonaigh (Altan), and Alicia Svigals(Klezmatics).

Those who have expressed an interest in Natalie MacMaster should really check out Jerry Holland.

[fritzdaviolinist]

what about Gil Shaham?!?! He's the most amazing violinist and human being i've ever heard of! His tone is so purified and he has the impeccable sense of rhythm (something u don't find often in this "younger" generation of violinists) His music always speaks out to me even if I listen to it almost every single day. It sounds so refreshing and new every time.

On the other hand, Oistrahk always moves me emotionally. He always inspires me with his beautiful tone and amazing sensitivity to music. I watched one of his performances capture in video once, the one w/ him playing sibelius concerto. OH MY GOSH, that brought tears to my eyes!! i've ever cried cuz i was so emotionally moved but i did that one time~

[bobcat]

Right now I'm enjoying Natalie Macmasters "In my hands"

Its really good!

Bobcat

[Jane]

Seeing as we are geeting into non classical fiddlers etc here... (You all know I love Vengerov), what about Dave Swarbrick, fiddler supreme.

Jane

[Rachel]

My favorites are Itzhak Perlman, Gil Shaham, and Isaac Stern. My favorite fiddler is Natalie McMaster of course!

[la]

Irene,

I just heard/saw McDuffie play the Adams concerto a week ago tonight - his playing was excellent.

la

[Rubylox]

Karen Briggs is one of my favorite violinist. The first time I heard her play was in Leimert Park in Los Angeles. Usually when a band is playing at a festival, some people listen and others go about there business. I had never seen so many people focused on the stage that day! There were people sitting on the ground, standing and perched on buildings. After she finished, the ovation lasted for ten minutes! The Amazing Grace CD was good, but if you ever have an opportunity to hear Mrs. Briggs live, do it!

[altgeige]

Ysaye, unquestionably, at least in the realm of the small things he recorded. What amazing panache!

Among people I've heard doing larger works, Zino Francescatti and David Oistrakh (his son's not too bad either) were excellent. So is Aaron Rosand, 'though I wish he would focus his pitch just a little more.

Among newer players, Perlman is something else. Vengerov and Shaham are pretty good, but not exceptional.

If I may offer a least favorite: Gidon Kremer. What is there to like about him? He plays cleanly, I suppose, and fairly well in tune, but he has no tone and no real musical force. I think the only reason he has a career is that he plays things nobody else cares to, and some people apparently want to hear them - like that appalling cadenza Schnittke wrote for the Beethoven Concerto, or in fact anything else Schnittke has ever written. It's unfortunate that Kremer has performed and recorded some of the things he has; the violin and orchestra version of Milhaud's Le Boeuf sur le Toit deserves to be heard more, but I doubt that, any violinist would venture it after his disgusting performance.

I'm going to stop here before I get (more?) carried away.

Altgeige.

[Bowflex]

Nice to see there are a few more jazz lovers floatin' around in here! SuzanneL: I think I ran across that Perlman & Previn CD today at the music exchange. I thought it was mis-categorized so I left it! Maybe I'll go back and grab it tomorrow. Thanks.

[illuminatus]

I have so many favourite violinists, so I have grouped them according to my taste.

Dyng to listen: Szeryng, Milstein, Ricci, Oistrakh

Want to listen: Menuhin, Heifetz, Stern, Perlman, Rosand, Shumsky, Grumiaux, Chung

Will listen: Vengerov, Shaham, Mutter, Accardo, Bell, Suk, Kennedy

Might listen: Hahn, Midori

Will not listen: Chang

Will kill me: Mae, Rieu, Brava

[gypsyfiddler]

About Noel Pointer; I love his version of the 'Roots' theme from his CD 'Hold On'. His death in 1993 (at the age of 40) was a tragic loss to the world of jazz.

Another jazz violinist whom I like, though I haven't heard very much of him, is John Blake Jr. This guy plays GREAT jazz violin.

Of the early jazz violinists I love Eddie South, of which I was fortunate in finding a rather hard-to-find book which is a compendium of his recordings, as well as photos taken throughout his career. An interesting story from the book relates the great Kreisler remarking to a friend that South should have been a concert violinist.

[This message has been edited by gypsyfiddler (edited 01-04-2001).]

[Julius Martin]

I have heard the following violinists play with the Pittsburgh Symphony and like/love them all for different reasons. Would travel to hear any of them again.

Midori

Chang

Mutter

Hahn

(Add cellist Yo-Yo Ma: great technique, emotional playing and personality.)

[Bowflex]

I agree, Noel Pointer was a tremendous loss to the jazz community. I'm going to pick up that Hold On CD this evening, I just hope it's still there! I haven't heard any of John Blake's pieces yet, but I'll look out for some of his works. I'd like to check out that book on Stuff Smith too, will keep me eyes peeled for it also. Hopefully with a lot of practice, I will be able to pick up right where Noel Pointer left off...

[gypsyfiddler]

Hi Bowflex,

I recently ordered the Noel Pointer CD from Amazon. The Eddie South book I ordered from a book dealer in Canada (whom I found at http://www.abebooks.com/ )The name of the book is 'Black Gypsy: The Recordings Of Eddie South' by Anthony Barnett. Mr. Barnett also has a book on Stuff Smith called 'Stuff Smith, Pure At Heart' which can be found on the above mentioned website (in fact I just checked it out a second ago). Happy hunting!!!

[This message has been edited by gypsyfiddler (edited 01-04-2001).]

[Bowflex]

gypsyfiddler:

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out right away. The Noel Pointer CD was gone at my first stop today, so I special ordered it, along with a Doug Cameron CD at my second spot. They should arrive in about a week or so. Can't wait to hear them!

[starlight_sweetie]

quote:

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Originally posted by Theresa:

Definitely Perlman and Milstein; up and coming: Jessica Lee (Curtis...extraordinaire!)

[This message has been edited by Theresa (edited 02-02-2000).]

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Theresa are you talking about Jinyeong Jessica Lee?? I was at a place called the Steins Institute with her, she is a talent. It was awesome playing with her( if its the same one) she taught me a lot and I taught her a ot so it was cool. ( that sounds dumb I bet) My fav violinist always has been and always will be PERLMAN and my second is milstein.

[qkewl]

HEIFETZ HEIFETZ HEIFETZ.... and more HEIFETZ.

[qkewl]

oh i forgot to say.. i saw jinyeong jessica lee play at curtis 2 years ago. She played the tchaikovsky violin concerto... i thought it was really bad. She was going crazy and out of control due to nervousness and it had nothing to it musically and her technique wasn't even that astonishing. The only good parts were her tone in the slow lyrical stuff in the first movement.. that was it. I wanted to leave before she finished... i really couldn't believe she was a curtis student.. maybe she got a lot better tho?

[HuangKaiVun]

Myself and Jan Kubelik.

I do a very good Kubelik imitation on Strad model violins.