Hello everyone!
Welcome to another episode of TwoSet Violin!
Today, of course, we're gonna review
- five different Mendelssohn violin concerto recordings. - Mmm.
These videos serve as inspiration for myself...
to uh, get ready for what's coming
(if you know, you know),
and also get my self-esteem destroyed too.
For those of you that don't know,
when we hit 4 mil subs,
- Brett is playing the Mendelssohn violin concerto... - Mmm.
- So you're practicing hard, hear it every day. - Mmm.
*Singing the opening melody of Mendelssohn's violin concerto*
It's like the...
I would say it's probably the most famous violin concerto opening.
- Oh, 100%. I think so. - Yeah.
- Alright! So... - Top 5!
Should I rate them 1-5?
No, everyone is equal in their own rights.
They're really good in their own way,
but let's go for the first one...
(Brett) You're first on the list, mate!
I do think Ray's, um...
And if you're watching this,
- your Mendelssohn's probably one of my favorites of yours. - Oh yeah! It's like...
lit AF.
So, Ray's Mendelssohn violin concerto...
I think it's just very...
clean and elegant.
- Mhm. - The way he plays.
When I think of Mendelssohn violin concerto as a whole,
he plays it really well.
- Yeah. - Just solid.
- There's nothing wrong with it. - Yeah.
And then...
He doesn't do really crazy stuff that goes, "Ooh..."
You kinda have a question mark.
- Yeah. - It's just clean, how Mendelssohn should be,
really youthful, um...
- It's got that kind of naïve energy to it. - Yeah.
Not saying that Ray is naïve, just...
- Just saying Mendelssohn itself... the Mendelssohn... - Oh, the Mendelssohn, like...
- The youthful, naïve love and emotions, right? - Yes! Yeah! That- that thing.
So you can hear it in...
Like, it's already really youthful and clear,
- Yeah. - and it's not too heavy, like...
- Yeah. - the opening of a Tchaikovsky concerto or Brahms...
- Mmm. - at the beginning.
So that's what I really liked about his playing,
and also his, um... runs.
It's pretty...
- It's pretty clean. - I like that it's very...
- just singing and connecting as well. - Yes!
- The- the phrase. - Yeah, yeah! And you hear the singing phrase...
And there's a lot of subtle things he does really nicely,
like the G to F-sharp...
- Yeah. - He makes good use of that... harmony.
Anyway...
Oh, nice.
- Nice! Ahh... - Dude! Like...
He just knows when to put on...
- the pedal. - Yeah.
- Boom! - Like- like, imagine you're in a race car,
you just put on the throttle like...
He's like, "Here we go!"
Yeah.
And that octave is just...
- Yeah, that articulation on the high notes is so satisfying. - Yeah!
- (Eddy) Yeah! - Ahh...
Anyway, that's kind of what I like about Ray's playing, yeah.
Yeah, nice!
- Number 2? - Number 2!
(Brett) Oh...
Next!
- (Eddy) I mean, of course! - (Brett) Hahahahaha!
- Woah, big surprise there! - Oooh hoooo!
When it comes to Hilary Hahn's playing,
WOAH.
DUDE.
First of all, tempo is... pretty up there.
I can imagine the 3rd movement.
- Yeah! It's pretty... fast... - Woah!
But it's not just fast for the sake of fast,
it's fast, but it's nice to listen to,
and it gets you really excited
- and kinda like, really into it. - Mmm, yeah.
And then the runs are so damn clean, and of...
Nah, just look at the pinkie.
Okay!
I know that's just scales...
You know, everyone's probably like, "Ooh, scales!"
That is so hard to do... under pressure!
- How do I explain? You know what I mean, right... - No no no, just tell them the story about Ziyu...
- Yeah, I was just about to- yeah, okay! So... - No no no, just tell them the story about Ziyu...
Tell everyone...
Okay, yeah. I think you should tell this one.
Okay, so Ziyu came to Singapore
to do a concert with Singapore Sym...
I think a recording or something.
- And we kinda had the chance to catch up with him. - Yeah.
For those of you that don't know,
- Ziyu is the... winner of the Menuhin Competition that... - Yes. Yeah.
We did a few videos a few years back, and he's just like...
- Like, he can play anything on the violin. - Ahh...
Holy crap.
Like, you see him play Paganini? He's just like...
He's like, "I haven't practiced for 3 days!"
Up bow staccato, but like, the other way around, like...
- And ahh, I was like- anyway. - Yeah.
So he's very talented, and of course he works really hard.
He's really good.
So I was like, "Oh yeah!
I'm playing the Mendelssohn concerto soon!"
He's like...
"Oh!"
"Mendelssohn!"
"So haaaard!"
"I'd rather play Paganini!"
Yeah! He literally said, "I think Paganini's easier than Mendelssohn!"
Oh!
I was like, "No, you're joking, right? Look..."
And he just said, "No!"
He was full-on serious then.
- He'd literally rather play Paganini concerto than Mendelssohn. - Yeah.
And the reason is...
He says, "Mendelssohn's one of those pieces where
- it has to be spot on... - Yeah.
or it's so hard to pull off."
- Yeah. - He said it's like a Beethoven violin concerto.
Beethoven is notoriously known...
- Yeah. - to be very hard to play.
- Yeah. - It's gotta be in-tune.
It's all scales, but you gotta be in-tune,
it's gotta be nice...
You can't hide behind the roman-
- deep romanticism of some pieces. - Yeah.
- And then so... - 'Cause like, with Paganini...
a few notes can be crunchy,
- but it doesn't matter, because it's just fireworks. - Yeah, it's just fireworks! Like...
Up-bow staccato...
If you spend enough time...
- It's hard, technically, but if you got it, you got it. - Yeah.
Mendelssohn is like...
Nah.
- You can't just randomly crunch or accent a note. - You can't just acc-
- 'cause it throws the whole phrasing off, right? - Yeah.
- And so that run there was a good example, it was like... - Ahh...
- And dude, all the articulations... - (Brett) Let me show you...
(Brett) Yeah!
The way Hilary does it, it's like...
You know she knows exactly what she wants to do,
- and then you know she's doing it. - Yeah.
Yeah!
(Eddy) Yeah...
So... playful!
It sounds like, "Oh, it's just a pleasant piece!
- Yeah. - It's so easy," but it's not!
Dude! Dude...
That is notoriously famous for being like "Oh, it's that run."
If you go to any violinist...
- Nah, you got...! I'll try, I'll try it! - Nah, just kidding!
Ah sh...
Not bad, but you [did] harmonic, she doesn't. Hey...
- She like... - Nah, she goes...
I can't do it.
- But there... her choice... - Only Hilary can do it.
- Yeah, only Hilary can do- - Only Hilary can do it.
And- and then...
Only Hilary can do that choice of fingering.
- Yeah. - This exact recording, go have a look.
Slow it down to the nth degree, that's what I did.
I slowed slo-mo...
Her fingering is so... logical...
- that it is so hard. - Yeah.
'Cause as violinists, we don't practice that type of hand posture.
Normally, it's just...
Two, two, two, two, that makes more sense.
- That's how we practice scales. - Yeah.
But hers is...
One, two, one- one, two...
One, three...
Two, four...
- I don't know! She's going up the D string and A string. - Yeah...
- She eliminated all slides. - Yeah.
But yet... it doesn't sound weak on the D string,
- high up on the D string. - It doesn't sound weak, it's like...
*Singing part of the 3rd movement*
I'm so impressed by the way she can within one bow, like, let it rip.
- You know what I mean? - Yes! Just...
It's like...
And she's only using this much bow!
Yeah, yeah!
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
(Brett) Most people...
She's like...
Bam!
And then...
She's like, "Bam, bam, BAM!"
- It's amazing. - Yeah, I know.
Oh man...
(Brett) Next, we have...
(Eddy) Mutter, let's go!
For the usual reasons, it's just...
It's a Mutter sound.
- You guys, look. Just listen. - Okay.
- From beginning? - Yeah.
Yeaaaah.
Dude, I know what you mean.
- She's got that vibrato. - She's got that vibra- and...
It's a bit faster.
Ooh, yeah.
Dude, she's...
Yeah, she's got that, like...
I can't even do it. It's like really wi....
- Would you say it's wide, but also fast? - It's like wide and fast, but she makes it sound so like...
not so like "Ughh", all over the place,
like what I just did, but it was...
It's, like, controlled well.
- Mmm. - You know what I mean?
- Mmm. - And you can tell she's not giving it her all.
- Mmm. - It's just like... 30% of what she can do with her vibrato.
- She goes 100% in a Dvořák concerto or something. - Yeah.
Well, I mean, because the opening,
- it's just like a... - Yeah!
And then you can tell her bow is just like...
Just really light...
Anyway, that's Sophie- Anne-Sophie Mutter.
- (Eddy) Last one! - (Brett) Alright, last one!
Augustin, he's a... also a good friend of ours.
He plays really well.
He makes it also really interesting in it's like-
- it's his interpretation as well. - Mmm.
- And his playing is also very clean. - Mmm!
He always looks like he's dancing with the violin... when he plays.
- Dude, that G string. - Yeah.
Dude, my bow would be shaking then.
Ohh!
I know what you mean! He does... things his own way.
- You can tell he's thought it through. - Yeah.
Most people, when they play Mendelssohn,
- they just kind of power through it. - Yeah.
Well, I mean, normally,
- people come away for that top E, but he goes into it! - Oh yeah, yeah! They're like...
- Yeah. - He's like...
- I don't know, he goes straight into it! - Yeah.
Something, like, hallmark of great violinists,
like, they have their own interpretation,
- but it's so convincing. - Yeah.
And you can- if you listen to them,
you can tell they're doing exactly what they want.
And they have their own sound.
- They have their own sound. - Yeah.
Yeah.
It's like, he went really like...
And then...
- Always the third one, he goes into it, right? - Yeah.
And then the subtle things, like the chord...
He went...
- He brought the C-sharp, that dissonance, out a bit more. - Mmm, yeah!
It's very refreshing.
So that's...
Yeah, they're my top 5 favorites.
- I mean, that's a pretty solid top 5. - I know! I'm like, just like,
"Ling Ling, please give me any... skills and talent,
just... one ounce, one sprinkle from one of them!"
"I'm a time traveler!"
"My favorite recording is...
Brett Yang's Mendelssohn for 4 mil!"
Guys, it's gonna be awesome!
Check it out!
Help! Ahh haha!
Let's all hit 4 mil subs!
It's gonna be great!
Alright, please accent [the] like button!
Let's get to 4 mil subs, and we will see you guys next time!
Buh-bye!