April 27, 2013 at 11:26 PM
Ms Pine's accompaniment is a wonderful supplement to the sheet music. It has been a great inspiration and has helped me to gain a greater sense of the complexities of tone and color that can be brought forward in these etudes and in my playing more generally.
I consider myself an absolute beginner but every aspect of my playing has improved since I have started working regularly on them. I am actually wanting to turn on a metronome for the first time since starting the violin.
(A quick note to readers: These are on a dvd rather than a cd. To untether from from my PC, I opened it up on my computer, copied to my desktop and then imported into itunes so that I can use it from my iPhone or iPad on my music stand.)
I also just like listening to them when I go out for a jog or while driving in the car. :)
Regarding Wolfahrt, he seems to have been well regarded as a composer. Google books unearthed a well reviewed set of compositions in the Strad ("Bunte Reihe for two violins and a piano - these are 5 pieces easy and melodius and well worthy of attention by amateurs") and "Romanze" by Franz Wolfahrt is a selection in an ad for Julius Eichberg's "Modern Violin Music". There also appears to have been a chemist of the same name living around the same time in Germany.
Based on the history I found about his father, Heinrich, I can't help but wonder how many of these etudes were things that he learned as a boy.
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