Long-term MBer Lizzie sent us three sound files of her playing the violin. It took us several days to convert them to blog-friendly format (sorry, Lizzie), but here they are at last: Part 1, Part 2, and Cadenza.
Here’s Lizzie’s description:
A few months ago, I asked the blog if anyone would be interested in
hearing a recording of my playing. Several people responded
positively, so I went off and recorded me playing the concerto I was
working on at the time, which was the first movement of Paganini
Concerto no. 1. Since the piece is about 20 minutes long and really
hard to play through well at one sitting, I split it into three parts
(the first part, the part that comes after that and approx. 50
measures of rest, and the cadenza that comes after the second part).
Hopefully, I included them all in attachments in a format that you can
open / post. The first part is probably the best, the second part
contains some really cool parts that may, alas, be slightly out of
tune (or more than slightly, but hey, I’m still a student, and I’m
getting better), and the third part the hardest and most showy (Sauret
cadenza. I swear, that man must have had a horrible childhood or
something, and had this unresolved grudge against the world of
violin-playing, and decided to get it out by writing the hardest, most
evil cadenza he could think of).
*stands up* *claps* That was…amazing!
I don’t have twenty minutes, but I can listen to the first part.
…And the second…
…And the cadenza…
*CLAPCLAPCLAP* That was very good. I love violins…
Wow! That was WONDERFUL! *clap clap*
You are really good! Those songs had a TON of twists and you performed them perfectly! Thumbs up!
I am currently listening to the first part and I have the strange feeling that I may have played the bass part to some of this concerto. anyways *claps* you are really good!
I’ll listen to them when I have an adequite internet connection for downloading music files, but I imagine that it’ll send me packing to my room to practice for several hours…..it sounds like it’ll be really good.
*standing ovation*
Bravo! It was amazing.
thank you! If anyone has any questions I’ll be glad to answer them. I’d be interested in hearing what the other musicians on the blog think, in general.
My singing, on the other hand, is more along the lines of what the Spokane Kokovention uploaded.
Bravo! Very Nice indeed.
wow that was good – I would send in some of my singing but I’m too lazy and I dont feel like singing because I have lost my voice. hahahahahahahahaha
If I still played the euphonium or the trumpet I could send in a clipping of those…….
That was brilliant, Lizzie. I play violin, as I mentioned long ago as a newbie with no concern for PoPoing. I could potentially eventually become nearly as good as you in a million years, if I hadn’t branched out into fiddle/folk music and pretty much dropped the classical.
You can hear me play on one or two of the MuseCasts, I believe, as well as Midnight Fiddler and Glassboro. Not to expect much, of course.
That was really good!
You must have worked really hard on it. The vibrato was amazing, btw.
Argh, I still haven’t gotten to listen yet. I can’t wait to go to the library again.
10~ You were really good! Actually, I prefer your vibrato to my teacher’s, but that’s a different story.
I dropped out of classical music too, and now Im just starting to play some more, by urgung of my teacher, and this time it’s not so repulsive. i wish now that I had stayed with it, because for my 8 or so ears of playing, I’m not very accomplished. Part of it is that only about half of my time I’ve actually had someone teah=ching me, and I’ve done a lot of coasting.
12 – Haha that makes sense. I was a great classical player, if you’ll allow me to say so, but then I started having to really work and practice for an hour a day, and I really didn’t feel like doing that anymore. I was getting more homework, too, so I felt as if I didn’t have the time if I also wanted to procrastinate. I love fiddling, and I could get good at it, but I’m not going to work that hard. I’m doing it for the fun.
My vibrato is my pride and joy. And of course fiddling is not the way to showcase it, but oh well.
i wonder if someone could play it on the cello……. That wasn’t good. IT WAS WONDIFICENT!! THAT WAS AWESOMELY GREAT!! I’m outta breath now. Yes, still, I wonder if someone could do it on the cello. My sister plays the cello. I play the guitar, keyboard/piano, as some other things. But now I wish i played the violin!!!
13- yeah, I remember hearing you on the musecasts, and from what I can remember, you sounded good. What type of fiddle do you do? I used to play klezmer (I never really got serious, just fooling around), but I don’t really any more.. don’t really have time.
12 – yeah, my big regret is not switching teachers sooner, from my first teacher to my second. I wasn’t really learning that much the last year, and then I learned so much when I switched.. I kind of feel like I’m behind because of that – that everyone else has had those few extra years of really good training that I haven’t had.
14 – actually, there’s a video on youtube of a cellist playing the cadenza – George Neikrug is his name, I think (feel free to snip). He was really old when it was recorded, though, so he couldn’t do it as well as he apparently used to. My teacher actually learned how to play the cadenza from him.. Probably would be more difficult on cello, though, and it’s a really violinistic piece, character-wise.
I love cello, though. It sounds so sexy when it’s done well.
This is simply smashing, Lizzie. By the way, I’ve decided to have you be a random member of the Springing Slayer Crisis Conference in my book.
Lizzie Blackstone- Member of the Conference. Postulates that the Slayer may be a vetala. Quickly shot down by historians in the arena, as all vetala were destroyed in 648 DE by Anvivo Corvo, an event known as Doom of the Vetala.
If there are problems, please let me know.
Oh, and Paganini had a disease of the tendons in his hands and wrists that allowed them to be much more flexible than other violinists. Thus he was able to do insane things like intentionally break a string in mid-concert and still play everything by stretching his fingers over impossible lengths. This, among other things, led to a popular rumor that he was possessed by the devil.
Wow! You are good. I hear my sister (who is not bad at all and frankly a serious violinist who’s been playing for many years and practices an hour a day but still a 10-year-old) practice violin everyday, and I’ve gotten a bit sick of violin music, but this is amazing. I only had time to listen to the first bit of part 1, but what I heard is excellent.
Oh, WOW. *applauds* That’s amazing.
**Aplauds**
u play good……its just that i dont like classical music.
That’s soooooo beautiful!!!!! I congratulates you!!!!
And ILOVECHEESE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, it’s u play WELL. Not good. Well.
Wow, that was amazing. As I thought, I’ll go home and feel compelled to practice.
It was so clear, even in the fast parts. Wow again. *applauds vigorously*
By the way, my mom is listening to it right now, and says that it is fabulous. Bravo!
Lizzie, how long have you been playing? Also, how long have you been working on this piece?
Have you been to, or heard of, Interlochen music camp in Michigan?
(questions from my mom)
Again, that was really amazing playing.
16 – that sounds awesome. Can I kill someone? and can I read the story when it’s done?
25 – I have been playing for i think 12 years? I started in January when I was 4, and I’m 16 now. I’d been working on that piece for around three months when I recorded it, I think. Actually, maybe more like five months, but I think I’d been playing other stuff in between. I’ve not been to Interlochen, but I’ve heard of it and I know people who’ve gone (I also have a friend who went to the academy). Apparently the food is really horrible.
oh, and thank you to everyone who’s replied – it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
yeah, I need to go to sleep now. Really tired.
26~ My mom agrees that the food at Interlochen is dreadful. So bad that she traded her lunch ticket for horn lessons (she played French horn).
*applause*
fabulous!
*gasp* That’s absolutely insanely good. You deserve massive amounts of applause. And you sound professional.
I’m never able to play anything well, because as soon as I get a piece to be even marginally okay, my teacher starts me working on the next one. o_o
OOOOH MY GOSH! YOU ROCK LIZZIE!
I would totally send in a recording of me playing my cello but it would be insanely embarrrasing. No way am I as good as you, Lizzie! That was insane!
AAK! YOU ARE SO GOOD!
*APPLAUSES WILDLY*
Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That’s amazing! ♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫ That’s absoulutely amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And my previous comment was for part 1. The rest………