Hello everyone!
Welcome to another episode of TwoSet Violin!
That's right, today we have our violins.
And we're going to be ranking on a tier list,
the easiest and hardest violin pieces
in the history of humankind!
I missed the G.
But that's all G!
So we got a tier list here, and a list of different violin pieces.
We're going to tell you our professional
violin Internet detectives' expert opinion
on which pieces are hard, and which pieces are easy.
And you better believe it.
First one.
Ooooh!
I don't think it's easy.
- Definitely not easy. - No.
- Definitely not medium. - Not medium, yeah.
- Hard? Yes. - It's not Ling Ling, it's hard or god level.
In terms of notes, it's hard.
If you wanna play it really really well,
I feel like it's god level.
You can't hide your imperfections with vibrato,
- or pressing, you gotta be like... - Yeah.
And like, even then...
Like, my chord's like...
Such a hard piece to have that purity of sound,
and that control, when you're so naked.
Yes. I think Bach makes you feel very naked.
Especially slow Bach.
I feel like it's... hard.
- Let's go hard. - Let's go hard for now.
Okay, the next one is Chaconne.
- God level. God level. - God level, I think it's god level.
Chaconne is like Adagio, just a lot more intense.
- Yeah. - Where you have the chords like...
And it's just... Everyone knows it.
So many chords, to make it sound not heavy as well,
- Yeah. - or crunchy on the violin.
And then it's so long.
- It's like, 10 minutes right? 10? - Oh, f...
- A little bit longer. Yeah. - Longer than 10.
All these different passages.
Obviously, there's the contrapuntal stuff,
where you have to voice differently.
Put it this way. I've performed Adagio before,
- I've never performed Chaconne properly. - Yes. Yeah.
- Alright, Beethoven Kreutzer Sonata. - Ohh!
- Hard. - This is the, this is the...
- That's the hardest. - That's the...
The opening is almost as scary as the Adagio.
It's really hard to be as strong as the piano.
- Oh yeah, 'cause the piano's belting out... - Yeah!
Yeah, the piano's going concerto mode on you.
And you're just like...
In the worst register on the violin.
So violin, the D string is like... the softest.
And there's this bit when the piano's going...
And the violin's just like...
And it feels like every time my stick is just rubbing against the string,
- like I can't get any more sound out of it. - Yeah yeah yeah... Yeah.
I've never performed the whole sonata,
so I feel like I can't give the most accurate...
- But I would rank it medium. - Yeah, I definitely think it's easier than Kreutzer.
Yeah, for sure.
It's still tricky.
And you're quite exposed too, but...
- The Kreutzer is something else. Yeah. - Yeah.
Brett: Alright, that's easy. That's...
Okay, compared to this other stuff it's easy.
- Bro, we got... - Okay, to be honest,
Hungarian Dance is not easy, but let's...
- We have to compare with the other pieces. - Yeah.
So I think it's easy.
Eddy: Now, the next one is a very different story.
I would say this is a god, borderline Ling Ling level, man.
- Have you guys heard the opening? - Oh!
It's messed up. It's like...
I don't know if I can try to demonstrate, it's like...
You have to be like, the fattiest sound like...
- I already broke it. - And you broke a string already!
Brett: There you go.
- It's like, you have to be so... - Mmm. Not a string, hair.
...massive.
It's very virtuosic.
It's difficult technical-wise, but the music is never...
...about showing off.
I think Brahms is musically more complex
- than most of the concertos. - Yes.
- Like... Pre his time, yeah. - I think so.
This guy went from Hungarian Dance to god level like...
- It's pretty close to Ling Ling. - Let's put it god level for now.
- Yeah. Yeah. - But borderline Ling Ling level.
Bruch.
- Medium? Yeah. - Easy, sorry.
- Ooh! Okay, easy? - Okay look, comparing to Hungarian Dance...
- What's this? Okay, then it's medium. It's... - Spring Sonata.
Or maybe Spring Sonata is easy.
Okay, but the third movement.
- I think it's okay. - Yeah?
- Medium or easy? You choose. - Medium...
Let's just go medium for now.
- Dvořák, ooh. - Oh, s***.
I think that's like...
- God level? - God.
- Yeah, it's not an easy concerto. - Yeah. Yeah.
It's not my favorite violin concerto,
- but I'll admit, it's very hard. - Yeah.
It's not the best register for the violin.
- Anne-Sophie Mutter. - Yeah!
And she played it with SSO, it was like...
Boom! I can't even do it!
It's like...
To make your sound project over the orchestra
- is extremely difficult. - Yeah.
See the thing is, the easier it is,
the more the great masters just play it so perfectly.
But if you take that aside,
- just as a piece, I would say it's easy. - I would say it's easy, yeah.
- Alright. - Erlkönig.
- Ling Ling, right? - That's Ling Ling.
- Yeah. Hilary Hahn with this freaking... - I'm sorry, but that's...
I'm gonna go...
And now imagine one person playing that.
- And there you have it. - I'm out.
- Ernst, The Last Rose. Ling Ling. - Yeah. Ling Ling.
- Dude, Ernst was just a psycho, man. - Ernst is crazy.
He just wants to cause more pain than Paganini.
- Yeah! - It's like, "Paga-nye-ni?"
He was jealous of Paganini, he's like, "I'm gonna one-up Paganini."
He actually was jealous.
Ooh! I like it.
I feel like it's a little bit harder than Beethoven Spring.
- Yes. Mmmm. - But I don't think it's as hard as the Kreutzer Sonata.
I'd put it the top of medium.
- How about that? Yeah. - Oh yeah, we can rank it on the left hand side. Okay.
Like that, maybe.
Liebesleid.
- Ah, that's easy. Sorry, it's easy. - Kreisler, easy.
- I feel like we don't have to rank the easy's, for now. - Yeah.
- Lalo, medium. - Medium.
- Yeah, it's around Bruch level. - I think it's a bit...
It's Bruch... I think it's a little bit harder than Bruch.
- Actually, you're right. - It's got the, um...
Eddy: All the runs. Yeah.
And the last movement is not easy.
- Oh, I can't remember it. - Yeah.
- Méditation, easy. - That is easy.
That, or Liebesleid are the easiest, I think.
Mendelssohn.
Hard? Medium, hard?
I think it's...
- What concerto is this? - I'd say hard.
I'd say hard, yep.
- I think it's harder than Kreutzer. - Yeah.
- 'Cause personal... opinion. - Yeah.
I mean... See, these are just different.
- Yeah, that's true. - They're different. It's arguable.
- I'd say they're all hard. - Yeah, they're all hard, yeah.
- Csárdás. Easy. - Csárdás. Sorry, like...
Actually, in terms of like, show-off bargain...
- Yeah. - Csárdás is the easiest for the most wow factor.
- The best value! - The best value for the wow factor.
- Ah. - Mozart 3.
- I feel like medium. - It's... medium.
- It's not like 4 or 5. - 4 or 5, I would say would be hard.
Out of his famous three concertos, like 3, 4, 5,
Mozart definitely got more sophisticated throughout those.
- So the 3 is the most simple. - Yeah.
You can even just go by the opening.
Like that opening is a lot safer than the other two.
Yeah, yeah... That's right.
The other two are so much harder to open.
- Pag Concerto No. 1. - That's like...
- ...Ling Ling. - See, I think the concerto's god level,
- but then the cadenza puts it to Ling Ling level. - Yeah, Ling... Yeah, okay.
That's the one with the messed-up cadenza, right?
- Yeah, that's the... - Sauret, right?
- Yeah nah, yeah that's, nah. - Yeah.
- That's Ling Ling. - Yeah.
Pag 24.
- I'm gonna say god level. Yeah. - God level.
To kind of get through the notes is hard, but to...
...play it with the flair and accuracy
that it's meant to be played with is god level.
- And it's constantly changing techniques. - Yes.
You have, like, no time to...
- Switch gears. - ...adjust, switch gears.
It takes time to switch gears.
- Yeah. That's true. - Yeah.
Hard or god level, I reckon.
Well, you played it. I haven't.
But there's a... Wasn't there also left hand pizz?
Uh...
It's okay. I feel like once you know it, you know it.
- Okay, okay. - But, but!
I did get blisters practicing that.
- Your call, I haven't played it. - I feel like it's harder than the Kreutzer and Mendelssohn though.
- I think so. - Yeah.
- Let's put it at the top of hard. - Yeah, I think it's at the top of hard for sure.
Hard.
And the...
Okay, so...
It would be medium, except for a few parts
- that really make this so hard! - Yeah, exactly! Yeah like, I just was like...
Oh yeah.
Yeah, like the main theme...
It's pretty chill, right?
And then you have the freaking...
And the second-last page, out of nowhere.
Where do we put it?
- Hard. - Hard, okay.
- I feel like it's... - I've never actually played it.
High medium, low hard.
Zigeunerweisen is the type of piece, I feel like
if you just grinded through the hours of slow practice,
- you could get it. - Yep, you're right.
- But something like Bach Adagio... - Yeah.
If you don't have really good fundamentals,
or really good musical thought,
you won't get there, even just through grinding.
- That's why I feel like it's high medium. - Yeah.
- Shostakovich violin concerto. - Now that's god level.
- God level. Oh, f... - That's god level.
Bro, one of the hardest violin concertos.
- Put it next to Brahms. - Yeah yeah. Yeah.
- Yeah, that's right. - I feel like Chaconne could go down, not trying to...
- Oh, yeah yeah yeah. Yeah, okay. - Like, it just... Yeah.
- Sibelius Violin Concerto. - Oooh!
I think it's god level.
- The third movement makes it god level. - The third... Yeah, it's right.
- Yeah, and to do that on time, like... - I forgot.
- Dude, check out Hilary Hahn. - Yeah.
I feel like it's harder than Chaconne.
- Just... - Yeah, alright.
- You know what, harder than Pag 24 as well. - Yeah.
Devil's Trill Sonata.
I never played it, I played a little bit.
It just sounds easy.
- Devil's Trill. - Medium?
- I think it's low medium. Medium? Yeah, I think medium. - Low medium, right there?
I just remember seeing bits of it,
and thinking like, that's a pretty meh...
- Yeah, I feel like it's medium medium. - Okay.
- Not easy medium, but yeah, okay. It's fine. - Okay, medium medium.
Also like, high hard, low god level.
Yeah, I feel like...
- Oh, I don't know if it's god level, actually. - I feel like Sibelius is a bit harder.
I think the thing with Tchaikovsky is just
it's longer, so it's more of a...
- ...endurance test to play it. - Yes. Yep.
And also, it's more iconic.
To like, make a real statement
- with your Tchaikovsky, is like... - This is...
- To make that a statement is not easy. - Yeah.
Everyone's heard it.
- It'll be the top of hard. - Yes.
- M...medium? High medium? - Yeah...
- Medium. That high? - I think it's about the Zigeunerweisen.
It's never like, flashy difficult, but it's like, um...
Ohh!
- Like, double stops, melodies and stuff. - Oh... Yeah, okay okay.
- I feel like, just to make it sound really pretty is hard. - Mm-hmm.
Summer.
- Okay, to play it well... - Medium.
- The solo parts can get pretty hard, like the uh... - Yes.
See, like...
Actually, it's not that hard.
- It's not that bad. Like, I think it's harder than Csárdás. - Once I've warmed up, I can do it.
- Summer's alright once you get it. - Yeah.
Once you get the pattern, I feel like it's quite easy.
Last one! Ugh, Ysaÿe Sonata No. 3.
High god level, low Ling Ling level.
- I think it's god level. - I think it's god level, yeah.
I wouldn't put Ling Ling.
Oh bro, but like, the way Vengerov plays it?
Okay, to play it like Vengerov...
All of this, to play it like one of those great artists,
like you put Vengerov in the equation, you put Heifetz...
You put like, Milstein, you put Hilary Hahn in...
They will become Ling Ling level.
Dude, I will never forget Chloe.
Like, she showed us off with the Ysaÿe.
I don't think we recorded it. Or did we?
- No, we didn't record it! - No.
We turned the camera off when we were just playing, jamming.
And she played the Ysaÿe 3, oh my god.
Brett: She was like...
- We were just like, "Holy moly!" - And then I remember trying to play a bit afterwards.
And I was just like...
Yeah! Yeah, nah nah nah...
- I wish we filmed that scene! - We good, we good.
- I ain't playing after you, girl! - You're under so much pressure!
Chloe just went...
She just nailed it, and then Eddy goes,
Yeah, you're like...
Literally just like that! I lost it.
- The freaking embarrassment I would have. - It's like, the bow wouldn't even bounce.
I learned my lesson. Never play after a prodigy.
- It's like you forget how to play violin. - Yeah! I felt like I forgot.
I just became like, this weak version of myself.
- And when you stopped... - And your sound gets softer...
Yeah, when you stopped, you looked so embarrassed, like...
Eddy's face was like...
I was so embarrassed!
Yeah, you were just like, "I shouldn't have done that."
Your face was like, "I shouldn't have..."
- Oh, I won't forget that. That was pretty funny. - There you go.
The definitive violin tier list.
Looking at this tier list, I can see at what point
do I start feeling uncomfortable.
Yeah like, easy mode is like,
look at the music for 15 minutes and you could probably play it.
- Like maybe not, like, epicly, - Yeah, 15...
- but you could get through it. - I can get around it, yeah.
Medium, I might need...
Yeah, you're right, a week.
Hard level, I feel like...
1 to 2 months of solo practice, I feel pretty good.
God level I'm like...
- Maybe like, 6 months to really play well. - Yeah.
And Ling Ling is like, I can't even.
- Ling Ling's like, I can't. - I just can't.
- That's it! Nice. - Noice.
If this video gets 80,000 likes, Brett will perform
Ernst Der Erlkönig, and Last Rose of Summer,
- and Paganini Violin Concerto! - It's a joke, it's a joke!
It's a joke! It's a joke guys, don't...!
It will be the death of our channel!
That's the list, guys. One day, may all of you
- be blessed with Ling Ling's talent, - Yeah.
and we can all learn these together.
(both) Bye-bye!