January 2008

I love skating!

January 25, 2008 04:56

Laurie took her winterholiday and I took mine. After some years of skiing I go with a colleague skating on a lake in Austria, last year. This year a week long and on 1 februari I try to skate 200 km. We start at 7.00 hour in the morning and for 11 rounds of 16,6 km we get time till 17.00 hours. So in 10 hours about 185km. The last round you can skate in slow speed. But I think I must be happy when I skate 7 or 8 rounds?? We will see.
This is how I look, quite well protected against falling, so I can play violin after my holiday without hopefully any injuries:

(mainly Dutch) competitions skaters last year.

People of my level.
Here a Dutch site:WEISSENSEE

WEBCAM AT THE WEISSENSEE IN AUSTRIA
Don't forget to look at me at 1 februari!! (today they are also skating 200 km)

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Roby Lakatos could play 1200 notes in 1 minute + Adelina Hasani

January 14, 2008 13:30

After my concert of the 6th Bruckner I had a party with some friends and thereafter I quickly had to go to the ConcertGebouw in Amsterdam, the concerthall with around 800 concerts!! every year with 800.000 visitors! With a violinfriend I saw Roby Lakatos
together with his gypsy orchestra and Amsterdam Sinfonietta THE ORCHESTRA OF CARLA LEURS. She played with the 1th violins, but I did not speak her afterwards. But we are waiting of her professional contributions on her weblog. She plays more than that she is writing and that is a bad thing. Also the brother of Janine Jansen Maarten Jansen plays in that orchestra.
Roby Lakatos and Amsterdam Sinfonietta played also 2 pieces (Hejre Kati, On the waves of Lake Balaton) of JENO HUBAY, the name of my blog, because I am a big fan of this composer.

I did not know exactly knew what they would play, so I was surprised by these 2 pieces of Hubay. They also play something of the Hungarian compser Leo Weiner.

After 2.15 minutes he plays with 2 or 3 fingers quick pizzicato's like a guitarist. They say that he could play 1200 notes in 1 minute. That is 20 notes every second!
He has lost some weight.
Here the well known Czardas of Monti of him:

During the coffeebreak of the concert I saw a friend with his wife, the concertmaster ADELINA HASANI of the
Brabants Orchestra, a professional orchestra in the Netherlands. ADELINA HASANI is born in Albania, Europe.

ADELINA HASANI took part in various international competitions and was awarded first prizes and as a result of which she performed as a soloist with various Italian orchestras (so if you need a soloist made contact, her website is: www.adelinahasani.com). In the same time she was active with chamber music forming a duo partnership with pianist D. de Santis and the Hasani String Quartet, with which she won several prizes in international chamber music competitions as well.

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6th Bruckner and violinlessons

January 12, 2008 13:02

Tomorrow and next week I have concerts of the 6th symphony of Bruckner. Ealier I played the 4th(2 times), 5th, 8th and 9th symphony of Bruckner.
Jan van Gilse is an unkown Dutch composer but it is a quite good piece.
Ingrid Dam is a living composer, born in 1971 and she was listening during every rehearsal of her 1th symphony. I have to study again for the concert tomorrow.

Today I had again a violinlesson of a violin/viola-player and mother of 3 children. I forget to tell that I have those lessons for 3 months every week, specially for my right hand. She helped me with those difficult 2th violin score of the 6th Bruckner symphony with the right fingers for the right notes, but it is better to do that much earlier instead of the day before the concert.

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Strohviolin, Phonofiddles or violinophone

January 4, 2008 15:32

Thanks Bilbo.
Romanian "Vioara cu Goarna" fiddle from Bihor

Louise played on the Stroh Fiddle (Violin) by Corwin Zekley

Stroh violin
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Stroh violin Classification
Bowed string instrument

Related instruments
violin

A Stroh violin, or violinophone, is a violin that amplifies its sound through a metal resonator and metal horns rather than a wooden sound box as on a standard violin. The instrument is named after its German designer, Johannes Matthias Augustus Stroh, who patented it in 1899.

Stroh violins are much louder than a standard wooden violin, and the directional projection of sound made the Stroh violin particularly useful in the early days of phonographic recording. As regular violins recorded poorly with the old acoustic-mechanical recording method, Stroh violins were common (though by no means universal) in recording studios. After record companies switched to the new electric microphone recording technology in the second half of the 1920s, Stroh violins became less common. While the Stroh produces significantly more volume, it does this at the expense of tone, offering a sound that is harsher and more grating than a standard violin. On early records the Stroh violin can be recognized by its characteristically thin whining tone.

The Stroh violin was an expensive instrument; in 1911 it was offered by the London dealers Barnes & Mullins for nine guineas (£9.45, then equal to $37.80) or twelve guineas (£12.60 / $50.40) at a time when a reasonable factory violin could be had for two guineas. It was listed as being especially suitable for use in small theaters and music-halls. There was also a Stroh viola.

David Rebeck, of the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, playing a Stroh violin in a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade
A few musicians, including Tom Waits, Thomas Newman, and Bob Cohen for the Klezmer and múm, continue to use the Stroh violin for its distinctive sound. The Stroh violin is also an instrument used in folk music of Bihor region of Romania. Famous musicians of this music style are: Florica zaha, Florica Duma, Florica Bradu, Cornel Borza, Florica Ungur, Leontin Ciucur, Felicia Costin, Petrica Pasca.

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