Welcome back to another episode of TwoSet Violin.
Recently, we made a video
where we introduced
8 classical music performances that
we think are just absolutely epic,
that everyone should listen to.
And you guys really loved that video.
It got like, over a million views in...
- I don't know, like a month or something? - A month. Yeah, yeah.
You know, at the time, we actually meant to do 10,
but then it just went too long,
because there's too much to talk about.
So today we actually came up with another 8...
- Yes. - ...recordings.
'Cause there's so many epic performances out there.
And a lot of these recordings,
- we pick up from when we're studying music. - Yeah.
Actually, a lot of these recordings shaped...
our careers, I guess.
Probably gonna get copystriked for half of this,
so definitely check out
- Appreciate the support. - Bang!
Yeah. Anyway.
- Whoa... Starting off strong! - Oh yeah, okay.
There's this composer called Shostakovich,
who wrote some of the most
emotionally dark and intense...
...music. Just, ever.
And then there's this violinist called Sergey...
"Khachatryan"?
But anyway, here's a live performance he did.
And you have to check out this cadenza.
It's just insane.
- Dude, it might... Yeah. - That control!
The vibrato, the bowstroke.
The intonation, that...
That kinda like...
You could feel the pain.
He keeps the tension and the suspense,
in the most softest of passages.
Anyone that's performed violin in front of people
know that it's always the soft passages
that are the most nerve-wracking.
Because, you know, you can get shaky bow,
the tone can thin out.
It's a lot harder than playing fast parts.
- Like, most of the time, right? Yeah. - Yes.
But, this is only the beginning.
- Yeah, I guess. - So let's skip forward, because it's...
You know, it's a long concerto.
- Dude, I got goosebumps mate. - Yeah, that was ****ing good.
Anyway, you guys get the point.
Like, that was even higher.
Yeah yeah yeah! And so in tune!
So in tune!!
And it's a live performance!
This is already 30 minutes of playing in.
I wanna get to this buildup bit.
- I got goosebumps so many times on that one. - Yeah...
I remember listening to it like,
- 10 years ago, I'm like... - Yeah.
"Holy moly."
I only had to stop because I realized how...
- Yeah, yeah! This will be one video! - The video will be like this YouTube video, it's just like...
You notice like that octave BAM!
And then it's soft again.
It's like a good gear shift in a car.
And you really feel...
This kind of, sense of like,
- the pain. - Yeah.
If you guys know about Shostakovich, right,
- his life, the stuff he went through, - Yeah.
- Russia. - Human suffering.
- Human suffering. - Just a lot of suffering.
I wanna know what this guy was thinking
when he played this, too.
Did he have some image of something that
- compelled him to do such a performance? - Yeah.
(Ling Ling is practicing FORTY hours a day!!)
- It feels genuine. - It wasn't put on.
He was trying to get some sort of emotion out of it.
Dude, this is legendary.
How does this only have 34,000 views?
Come on, all Ling Ling wannabes!
Go watch it right now.
Alright, next one.
Okay, this is a big gear change.
Many of you guys know Paganini Caprice 24, right?
But do you know Paganiniana?
Okay, so Paganiniana is like,
this rendition created by another famous violinist
called Nathan Milstein.
- I feel like he was quite a good overall player. - Yeah.
A bit more old-school. You know, from
- '40, '40-'50ish? - Yeah.
- Don't quote me on that, but... - Yeah.
This is old-school.
- The recordings are all black and white. - The black and white days.
Yeah, black and white days!
- So, can I say the old-school pose? - Can I just say, the pose?
Yeah, it's such an old-school violin thing!
- You all know that theme, right? - Yeah.
Now the variation starts coming.
Can I just say how easy that was for him?
- Dude, he didn't bat an eye. - Yeah.
They should make all the
"fastest violinists in the world" play this.
Ohh, yeah!
That would be the challenge! Like...
He's like, "I've done my scales."
Yeah yeah yeah...!
It's kinda like that kind of old-school feeling,
where it's just, they're just...
- Boom. Straightforward. - They're not trying...
To like...
- Trying, gonna go... - Move around.
And add extra flair.
Like, if you compare it to the Khachatryan earlier,
- it's a completely different style of playing, right? - Oh yeah. So different!
And it's funny how these great artists,
they play it in a way that make you feel like
you can do it as well.
- Yeah... - "I got that."
"I can probably try learning it."
Yeah, and you try it, but like a year later, you're like...
- "Oh, f..." - "Nah."
Okay, next one!
This is a personal favorite recording of mine,
back in high school.
It's basically Korngold Violin Concerto,
and I like the piece a lot.
And there's so many great recordings from different artists.
I guess I just like this because...
It's like, nostalgic for me.
- It was the recording I listened to back in high school. - Mhmm.
But it's also nice because
we haven't included Itzhak Perlman yet,
and he is a legendary violinist
- that I'm sure many of you know. - Mhmm.
Something about this recording and his playing style
hits the kind of idea of romance.
- To me. Like this romantic... sound. - Oh, yeah.
- Nice. Nice, nice. - It's so nice.
It's so like,
- warm. Sweet, old. - It's warm and old.
A lot of times, violinists...
I mean, I do it too.
- We just gliss when it's convenient. - Yeah yeah yeah.
- When he glisses, it's very effective. - Mmm.
The combination of the vibrato, the gliss...
And the bow change, the way the phrases work.
This is a type of like,
phrasing that also reminds me a little bit of like, Nadien's.
- Yeah, yeah! It's got that style, yeah, it's got that... - The same style of playing.
- I don't know how to describe - - Sweet, it's so sweet and old, you're like, "Mmm."
Zapa...totato.
Zapateado.
Ah, Midori...
She's had quite a long career, actually.
She was very good at a young age already.
And I just remember this recording,
it was just crisp,
on point,
can't go wrong.
This is how it should sound like.
- Yeah. - So we'll play a bit of it.
- Dude... - Bro, those harmonics!
- They're not easy to do that quick. - Yeah, that's not easy!
Your hand has to,
one finger press down, one finger lightly touch.
But then, being a violin,
each note is a slightly different distance,
and if you mess it up, it doesn't speak.
She played it as if there was no octaves.
Did they just cheer??
- I would cheer to that! - Yeah...!
- WHOO!! - She was smiling.
Everyone's like, "WHOA!"
- Yeah... That's pretty good. - Oh, that's so funny!
Bro, what even is that?!
I don't know.
She's just moving so fast.
- That is virtuoso playing right there. - Yeah.
- Alright! - Next one.
Again.
- Which I played a lot when I was in high school. - Mhmm.
She has the ability to be so powerful, but yet still lyrical.
It sounded like a Disney scene, that moment.
- Oh, yeah! - Like a fairy tale.
- "BOOM!! Wow!" - I think you've said that before.
- Did I? Oh, really? - Yeah yeah yeah.
That passage there
does not sit comfortably on a violin.
- Yeah! This is not easy. - It is not...
It is written very awkwardly to play.
Most people playing that would be
figuring out how to even technically hit the notes.
She makes it sound like a melody.
- Well, there you go. - Yeah.
- You should definitely check out the whole thing. - Yep.
- Mhmm. - It gets epic.
The second movement, beautiful as well.
Next one!
Okay.
This one was just a very solid Beethoven.
By the way guys,
Beethoven Concerto is one of those concertos where...
It's hard to be solid.
It's very hard to be solid.
- It's too easy to just mess up. - Yeah.
People are probably gonna kill me for saying this,
but in my opinion -
- In my humble opinion... - In my humble opinion,
if your Beethoven doesn't offend,
you're already at god level.
Yeah! If your Beethoven doesn't offend people,
- you're doing a very good job. - Yeah.
- Dude, the concerto's basically arpeggios and scales. - Yeah.
And then you have to make scales and arpeggios sound like...
- ...a melody. - Yes!
That is hard.
Did someone just scream in the audience??
- Dude, help! Yeah! - I offended someone.
Already!
Dude, that would throw someone off!
But you can see how exposed that is, right?
- A freaking octave dominant seventh arpeggio. - Yeah.
The orchestra tutti plays for four minutes,
- so you're standing cold-handed, no warmup. - Yeah.
And you're just expected to play
octaves that are in tune,
exposed by yourself in a concert hall.
And the orchestras just go, "Peace."
- Yeah, we're all, it's like... Yeah! - "It's all up to you. We aren't supporting you now!"
- "We can't help you. You can't hide in us." - Yeah.
- Broken thirds. - Broken thirds!
Carl Flesch, it's the 6th or 7th...
Scales up.
Oooh!!
(both) Arpeggio!
Oh s***!!
Oh s***!
If you play violin, you know what it means.
- Just, just... - Yeah.
That is so...
****ing scary!!
Dude, that's all you get!
Bum, bum.
Yeah...!
- Orchestra's like, "Your turn again!" - Yeah! Bum, bum, bum.
"Here, go play!"
Anyway, you guys should listen to the rest.
So, I actually played the Barber Violin Concerto with, um,
orchestra. Back when I was in uni.
And so my friend was like,
"Have you heard Hilary Hahn's third movement?"
And I was like, "Nah."
And my friend was like, "Dude, it's messed up."
"It's messed, like it's so good."
Yeah. Messed up as in like, it will mess you up.
- Like, "WHOAAA!!" - Yeah!
Dude, the whole movement is just 3 minutes.
In her version.
- Yeah, yeah. Yeah! - It'd probably be like 5 minutes for me.
All the awkward string crossings.
Dude!
- It just doesn't stop! It doesn't stop! - Dude.
And the rhythmic pulse she had,
it's not just playing on time.
- That's one thing. - Yeah.
But the rhythmic pulse.
She brings out the syncopations when there should be.
Yeah, when it's important.
Can I just say it's like this again,
- the timpani or the percussion's like, - Yeah yeah yeah!
"Your turn!"
Yeah, "Your turn!"
You think that's messed up?
- Wait 'til you get to the coda. - Yeah.
Holy mol...
I forgot how fast it was!
I can't even like, physically do it now!
Let's air violin it.
I wanna get my violin.
You would have to be so efficient, like...
And my fingers are already leaving the string too much, a bit.
Yeah, like the pinky, it's like...
- Your pinky is curling out. Yeah. - The pinky has to be like that, right?
Your pinky wants to lift up!
- And it's projecting! - I need to practice.
- And it projects! - It ****ing projects!
Bruh, like, with violin playing,
half the game is projecting.
Oh yeah.
"iF yOu caN pLaY iT sLoWLy, yOu cAN pLay iT qUicKLy!"
Last one.
- Let's just chill out a bit. - Damn, that was a lot for me.
- Yeah yeah, chill out. - That was a lot. This is a chill-out video.
Whatever.
You guys know this one.
- Kreisler wrote this piece. - Yep.
Guess what? Played by Kreisler. 1930s.
How rare is it to be able to hear
- the composer play his own piece? - Yeah.
- Mmm. - Oh, he just went for it.
There's a lot of...
(both) Rubato.
A lot more than what we're used to today.
The vibrato is obviously also very...
- It spins. - The style's... Yeah, it's just old-school.
- Yeah. - It keeps going.
A lot of glissando.
I feel like this is more like this kind of a...
- Yeah! There's a lot of more... - Articulating of notes.
- Articulating, and portamento. - Yeah.
Keep in mind,
the strings and everything was a lot different.
- Yeah. - Like, you wouldn't be playing with a shoulder rest...
I wonder if they had string companies back then.
- Yeah, where did they get their strings from? - Yeah, what the hell?
How did they make the strings...?
- *sings Illumanti theme* - Yeah...!
Yeah, what the hell?
Did they order online?
"Free shipping if over
100 and something dollars of violin strings!"
- Oh, that's our website. - Oh!
- Guys! Check it out. - Oh yeah!
We're gonna get copystriked in this video,
but we have to share this with you guys.
Anyway, guys.
I think that's enough. Long episode, I know.
We tried to keep it short, but hey.
If you enjoyed this type of video,
accent the like button if you made it this far.
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And see you guys next time!
Keep practicing!!
I wanna slap it.