Questions abound: up or down bow, from the string or not, long or short? And how about vibrato, expert? This is clearly the easiest of the three major Mozart openings, but it still ranks this high because you have to make it live and breathe. And it’s surprisingly easy to sound bad on that first chord. Your first note is a three-note chord, then the phrase winds its way down and back up, question-and-answer, in the sunny key of G Major.Ĭommentary: Yes, Mozart 3 is one of the first “grown-up” pieces you learn, and it’s frequently scoffed at, but it’s still a Mozart concerto. Quick summary: A standard (which is to say two-minute-long) Mozart tutti, ending with a two-bar “And now, all the way from Lexington, Kentucky, Mr. You can save that for the panic-inducing sixteenth note passage later in the movement! But the short introduction means you don’t get a chance to get nervous either.
The Glazunov opening is tougher than Bruch because you’re “on the clock” as far as keeping time with the orchestra. If your violin is healthy, and you can get to third position with an occasional whiff of fifth, you’re going to sound great in the opening of Glazunov. I won’t call it easy, but it’s only a 5.0 because it sits right in the middle of the comfort zone. It’s a lush melody on the G and D strings with plenty of opportunities for schmaltzy shifts.Ĭommentary: The Glazunov concerto is a really difficult piece, let’s agree. Quick summary: You get three beats of a tutti and you come in on 4. It’s because you can walk into a violin shop with icy cold hands and make any fiddle sound like a winner! Plus, vibrating on the open G just makes you look cool. There’s a reason everyone uses the Bruch opening to try out violins. But not in this case, because there’s no tempo you have to match you’re on your own time, finding your sound, changing bows when you please. Sometimes, as we’ll see, a short opening tutti like this can be problematic. Quick summary: After a ten-second atmospheric curtain-raiser from the orchestra, you start on an open G string and slowly work your way to a nice, ringing D up on the E string.Ĭommentary: It doesn’t get much cushier than this. But come on! If you can tune your strings, you can play the opening of Berg.
And I’ve heard (from those who have had the pleasure of performing it with orchestra) that those open strings are no joke, considering how much musical weight they have to carry. The Berg is a wonderful, cosmic piece of great difficulty. Quick summary: You slur the four open strings without the orchestra, from lowest to highest, then you slur them back the other way.Ĭommentary: OK, just kidding around a bit. A 10.0? Just wait and see what Heifetz himself put at the top of the scale! Berg Degree of difficulty: 1.1 I’ve assigned each concerto a degree of difficulty for the opening. A 1.0 would be the equivalent of walking out and playing Twinkle Twinkle after a cozy 2-bar introduction. In other words, starting Paganini 1 fresh from your dressing room is a different animal from starting it after a 4-minute orchestral freeze-out.
IS WALTON VIOLIN CONCERTO HARD FULL
Keep in mind that these rankings are based on the orchestral versions with their full tuttis. We ran through all the major violin concerto openings, figuring out where they would rank on the scale from “cruise control” to “Mayday!” I think we burned through the rest of that afternoon, in fact. A few give you some margin for error in the opening, while others show you no mercy!ĭuring a practice break back in school at Curtis, I was musing on this with my friend Pavel Ilyashov. Some let you dig in right away and work your nerves out. How do you feel? That depends on the concerto, doesn’t it? Now the opening tutti is drawing to a close, and it’s your time to shine. You’re inches away from getting smacked by the conductor’s left hand. The hall is dark, but the spotlights make your eyes water. Imagine yourself on stage in front of an orchestra. I have now added the most requested, including one that was frequently touted as “the hardest ever”! Just know that I read all of your comments, so I hope that this expanded version of the list will delight violinists the world over. Editor’s note: The original version of this post was missing several concertos, each of which was pointed out by my faithful readers.
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