Looking for similar music to Vivaldi / Paganini

[Elliott]

Evening all.

I've recently been listening to Antonio Vivaldi (namely 'The Four Seasons'), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (the songs 'Trepak' and 'Marche' off 'The Nutcracker Suite') and Niccolo Paganini ('The Best of Paganini').

I'm wondering if anyone can reccomend me anything similar. I'm looking to find more music with fast playing (violin shredding preferably, it's brilliant), big build ups, and generally an all around 'powerful' feeling.

I'm not interested in the sort of classical music that dibbles and dabbles around and doesn't really 'go anywhere'.

Cheers.

[jbuck919]

Welcome, Elliott. Please favor us often with your posts.

I guess we're not going to be recommending the Brahms violin concerto.

If I read you right, and I may not be doing so, the biggest violin (section) "energy" I can think of occurs in the first movement of the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven. Agitation to the max. But you have to be patient--it doesn't get there right away. Also, you might get a better sense of what's really going on if you could see a video performance (sorry I can't provide a link) so you could watch the entire string section struggling to get there. Great fun.


I'm sure others will have additional ideas.

[Corlyss_D]

I've recently been listening to Antonio Vivaldi (namely 'The Four Seasons'), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (the songs 'Trepak' and 'Marche' off 'The Nutcracker Suite') and Niccolo Paganini ('The Best of Paganini').

Welcome to the Boards, Elliott.

What's wrong with more Vivaldi? He wrote tons of violin music. Anything by Giardino Armonico or Giuliano Carmignola or Concerto Koln or Musica Antiqua Koln will give you that rocket feeling.

What's wrong with more Paganini? Check out his violin sonatas and concerti.

Check out Andrew Manze, anything by him, but particularly his recordings of Biber. Biber does things with a violin that I didn't think were humanly possible.

Look too for violin sonatas and concertos by Telemann, another extremely prolific Baroque composer.

Bach's sonatas and partitas and concertos for violin are wonderful. I particularly like the sonatas and partitas in the version by Aaron Rosand, but others are good too. Look for the concertos in historically informed performances or original instruments performances by any of the groups I mentioned above.

Try the entire Nutcracker and Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty ballets. Also check out Kalinnikov symphonies, ballets by Leo Delibes, ballet music by Verdi and Rossini from their operas, anything by Glazunov, and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and Night on Bald Mountain.

That should keep you busy for the rest of the day . . . .

[Ralph]

Welcome!

Check out Albinoni and Dittersdorf for music you'll surely appreciate.

Corlyss is right - Vivaldi has so much to offer beyond the one best known series of violin concertos.

[ch1525]

I've recently discovered and become a fan of Henri Vieuxtemps' Violin Concertos. Good stuff.

[Gary]

Try the entire Nutcracker...

Welcome, Elliott.

I recommend the complete recording below of this perennial (more like annual) favorite.




Valery Gergiev conducting the Kirov Orchestra

Label: Philips

[jbuck919]

I certainly hope we have not scared away poor Elliott. We have now had about four mutually contradictory replies, including mine, to his post (based on the ambiguity of same). Elliott, stay with us, post again please.

[Elliott]

Thanks for the quick replies.

I'll check out The Nutcracker and Beethoven's 9 soon, as well as more of Vivaldi and Paganini.

I'm new to the whole classical music genre, so it seems there is a still a lot I've yet to discover.

[Gary]

...so it seems there is a still a lot I've yet to discover.

More than a lot, verging on infinite.

[Corlyss_D]

Thanks for the quick replies.

I'll check out The Nutcracker and Beethoven's 9 soon, as well as more of Vivaldi and Paganini.

I'm new to the whole classical music genre, so it seems there is a still a lot I've yet to discover.

Just open your wallet and release those dollars yearning to be free . . . .

[mourningstar]

Yeah Corlyss is right,..

Reminds me, .. i bought 2 years ago, an entire classical music box. 60 cd's for 30 euro's. and indeed i founded that extremily cheap.

Before that, i didn't knew who Fauré was, and who Camille Saint was..

and back to topic; Try listening to Sibelius, Violin Concerto. ..