Paganini's Caprice No. 24: Advanced Violinists Only

What’s the caprice anyway? 24 is number of the last caprice in Paganini’s set of 24 works for solo violin. All of those were composed in the period between 1802 and 1817 and are created in the form of etudes. Each of them was aimed at training an exact skill of a performer, be it fast switching of strings or other.

Each of the caprices had a certain dedication, most;y to famous musicians like, for example, Louis Spohr or Franz Liszt or Antonio Bazzini, among others.

As for the final caprice (24th), it became Paganini’s dedication to his own self. Or to be more precise, “to my self, regrettably buried”, according to the author. Up to now, No. 24 is considered to be one of the most technically difficult pieces for advanced violin performers only. A performer like should be skillful enough to rapidly shift the scales, possess the parallel octaves technique, left-hand pizzicato and not only.

Now look at one of the really good examples of such a gifted performance of this work. Below is Hilary Hahn's brilliant interpretation:

Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.6 From the Inside

In 1893, the great Russian composer Petr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's completed his Symphony No.6 that is commonly known as 'Pathétique'. So why was it ‘pathetic’ anyway?

Petr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

First of all, the symphony became composer’s last work. Petr Ilyich dies just 9 days after it was finally created. Luckily, within this short period of time, Saint Petersburg saw the premiere of the soon-to-become famous music work. This is another peculiarity, as a situation like this is a rare thing in the history of music. Too many outstanding composers never lived to the acclaim or even premier of their masterpieces. Moreover, Tchaikovsky not only saw it but took part in it – he led the first performance himself.

Another explanation of the ‘pathetic’ title for the symphony could lie in its music mood. It is well-known that Tchaikovsky frequently suffered from depression which could not but pour into some of his music compositions. The start of the work on the No.6 was not quite successful and the desperate composer tore up his draft manuscripts a few times.

The Symphony Pathétique as we know and love it today slightly differs from the one people listened to on the day of its premier. Right after the performance Tchaikovsky made a few more corrections in the score. Despite all the hardships on the way to creating that masterpiece, Tchaikovsky realized that it was to become one of his most decent works in a lifetime, he even mentioned in the letter to his brother.
The Russian title of the piece does not put any accent on the depressive mood of the work, however, musicologists agree on No. 6 being composer’s sort of a ‘suicidal note’.

Loved the video of the symphony performed in a 360-degree mode. How lovely it feels to ‘be part’ of the performance of such an important work!

Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto on Bayan

Advanced violin players are familiar with this outstanding work by Pyotr Ilyich. The famous Violin Concerto in D Major is known worldwide as one of the most difficult works for violin. The 3-part piece requires huge technical skill and immense concentration to be performed flawlessly (especially taking into consideration that there’s no pause between the last two movements).

Pyotr Tchaikovski and Iosif Kotek 

Written in 1878 on the shore of Lake Geneva, the concerto became composer’s way of the big depression he suffered after the devastating marriage. The young violinist Iosif Kotek (who presumably was composer’s lover) served as the major catalyst for the composition’s creation. However, to avoid the gossips, Tchaikovsky did not officially dedicate the work to his pupil.

Besides the violin, the original instrumentation of the piece includes flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, timpani and strings. The last thing you’d probably expect this piece to be heard on is bayan. But just listen how brilliantly the third movement sounds performed on it! The young man Alexandr Chrustevich does some little magic on his instrument, so fast and yet so flawless.

Maurice Ravel's "Jeux d'Eau" for Piano

Maurice Ravel composed this piece in 1901 and admitted that it was the beginning of a certain novelty that appeared in his music style.

Literally, “Jeux d’eau” is translated from French as ‘water games’, but you can come across other translations of the piece’s title such as ‘playing water’ or even ‘fountains’. The original manuscript contains an inscription made by Ravel that says ‘river god laughing as the water tickles him…’ This is a quote from a poem by Henri de Régnier – “Cité des eaux”.

In fact, the creation of this solo piano piece had a couple of powerful influences. First of all, at the time of composition, Ravel was a student of Gabriel Fauré and it is Fauré to whom “Jeux d’eau” was dedicated. Another strong inspiration was Franz Liszt. Particularly, his piece “The Fountains of the Villa d'Este” from the 1883 “Third Year” suite. The playful melodic sound of the water cascades made many composers think of expressing this natural phenomenon in their music, in fact.

The first pianist to perform “Jeux d’eau” publicly in 1902 was Ricardo Viñes who often premiered piano works by notable composers like Debussy, Falla, Satie. I personally love the 1977’s performance of this beautiful piano work by Martha Argerich:

Dream Big: Violin and Surfing

Everyone has a dream.  Some have more than one but I think everyone has, at least, one Big Dream that always quite distant and somehow impossible. But dreaming makes us move, keeps us going through time hope to get to the desired destination one day.

Many people imagine musicians as creative but a bit nerdy people who spend hours at their work desks or exercise rooms full head in the sheet music. It is a fact that music requires concentration and full focus on the matter, whether you are composing or playing a piece. And I think you will rarely find a musician who’s performing a concert tonight, and tomorrow is skydiving from 4000m. Seems to be a rare combination, doesn’t it.

But the story of Nuno Santos proves that people like this exist. Nuno is a teacher of violin who lives in Portugal. And Portugal is the place that has Nazare. And Nazare is one of the world’s most famous surfing spots. Moreover, it’s not Just some spot for surfing, but it’s a place for really bold people – big wave surfers. During the biggest storm waves can be as tall as 30m here.
As a person living by the ocean, Nuno loved surfing. But he loves his violin too. So one day he decided he would like to combine these two incompatible passions. That became his dream. In 2015, right on Christmas, Nuno Santos’ dream came true. He took his violin on top of the wave at Nazare. Jingle Bells was picked as the glorious melody, so perfect for the Christmas occasion. It was not a really long ride but it surely was inspiring. I can only envy people who set a goal as impossible as this one and who see their dreams go live!

Constanze Mozart, Woman Behind the Genius

As the saying goes, ‘behind every successful man there is always a woman’. No, Mozart’s wife Constanze was not the one who pushed him and made a great composer out of what he was from scratch. Not at all. But she was the woman who drove his inspiration and encouraged him for experimenting. And simply, she was his Love, the kind of Love that is real and has the power of creating beautiful things.

Constanze Mozart

(from Mozart’s love letter to his wife)
“… I get all excited like a child when I think about being with you again — If people could see into my heart I should almost feel ashamed. Everything is cold to me — ice-cold. — If you were here with me, maybe I would find the courtesies people are showing me more enjoyable, — but as it is, it’s all so empty — adieu — my dear — I am Forever your Mozart who loves you with his entire soul.”

Although their marriage did not start as smoothly as other ‘big marriages’ of the time, the couple still managed to make it happen officially after acquiring all the necessary consents, including the one from Mozart’s father Leopold.

Constanze was a very well-educated woman who besides all was a musician herself. She loved music and therefore could be her husband’s best music critic and advisor. Mozart dedicated some works purely to Constanze, like Sonata for Violin and Piano No.30 in C Major, K.403. Many of them, however, remained uncompleted. Other works had parts for his wife; for example, in the well-known Grand Mass in C minor there is a soprano specially for Constanze who performed it at the premiere in 1783.

Constanze Mozart was also the one who talked her husband into writing Fantasy and Fugue, K. 394, being a lover of Baroque style counterpoint. It happened after Mozart got to study the manuscripts of Handel and Bach and got very excited about the materials.

After Wolfgang’s death his wife put a lot of effort into publishing his works and organizing memorial concerts. Besides commemorating her husband it eventually made her wealthy, which was quite an achievement taking into account all the debts Mozart left her with after death.

There are a lot of women that influenced positively the creative work of their husbands, themselves being left in the shadow. But for their driving force, we would have probably missed some of the greatest masterpieces.

The Mystic Scriabin in the Himalayas

Sometimes music is all we need to dive into some special world of art, beauty and comprehension. But when music is enhanced by other senses – vision, smell and touch – a powerful effect is created.

We know Alexander Scriabin as the music master who developed the atonal music language putting major focus on mysticism. He had a very special and unique musical system where colors and harmonies played the central role. Alexander Scriabin is considered to be the main symbolist composer of Russia. His music was both innovating and controversial, its influence later stretched on Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Roslavets, among others.

Despite all the fame and appreciation, Scriabin was very soon forgotten after his death in 1915. However, years passed and his music was re-evaluated, his contribution re-acknowledged.

Yesterday I came across this trailer and then watched the entire unique performance - a tribute to the great Russian composer.

I applaud to the idea itself, it is such a great thing to embody what Scriabin would have wanted. The multi-sensory performance organized in the Himalayas is a well-thought event that puts all the necessary highlights on Scriabin’s music values. The colors, the sounds, the height, the sacred mysticism of the Himalayas  - all that creates a perfect setting for the music of the talented symbolist.