After Lipinski, I think I'm going to start serious work on the Three major concertos: Beethoven,Brahms and Tchaikovsky

February 17, 2010 at 10:57 PM

Yep, I think I've matured enough to find the heart of those pieces. I think I may want to start with the Beethoven, I'm not sure. Gee, that's an awful lot of D major though don't you think? I like most kids when I was young heard about these concertos and wanted to play them right away. I even bought the sheet music, and for some strange reason, I could never really play them. Sure I could sight read through the whole thing at 16 but I couldn't really play them with the same finesse that I could play Vieuxtemps or Wieniawski. So here's hoping that I matured enough to really play these great gems.

P.S. I won Dylana Jenson's new Cd!!! I can really understand how she feels. up until December of last year I was without a violin for about 2 years. I completely shut down. I would sleep for days at a time and not shower not care about anything. I was quite close to suicide it was one of those thoughts that always haunted me. I couldn't grasp the concept of life without a violin. When I read the interview with Laurie and Dylana I felt an instant connection to what she was going through. Borrowing violins and having to turn down performances because I didn't have a violin, it was awful. Finally I got a replacement it's not the best still but It's amazing the sound in close to the instrument I use to have and it's opening up a little everyday! I think that since I'm young the sound will grow with me until I'm ready for something new. I named my Violin the Phoenix to represent the destruction of an old way of life and the beginning of a new one. My life is changing for the better.

"Do you know what the violin means to me? A musician has to play. If I were punished, not lauded for playing, if I were not paid, not appreciated, even then I should have to play my violin. I would brave punishment to play, just as some men brave punishment for their religion. So many times I met with Ysaye, Thibaud, Enesco and others to play chamber music together; not poker or tennis or drinking, but music! For a musician's hobby is his art. In this he is blessed! 'I play, therefore I am' To that I cling!" Fritz Kreisler

From Anne-Marie Proulx
Posted on February 17, 2010 at 11:58 PM

Oh gee my writiing sounded like the one of an overloaded person with homework lol!

Let's just say that I agree with your fighting ideals but that it is not always obvious... Of all times there have been more "obedient" and more "rebellious" violinists. (just think of the soviet period as an example...) Hopfully good ones to be found in the two "schools"!!!

I guess I chose the obedient one... anxious to get these handcuffs off though! Everybody told me I would become what I would go in and that this would make me forget music... Obviously they don't know a thing about how it works in a musician's head haha!

Anne-Marie

From Francesca Rizzardi
Posted on February 18, 2010 at 10:38 PM

That interview touched me deeply. But what REALLY got to me was the name you gave your violin: Phoenix. When I told my uncle that some money he had given me had gone to buy my first violin, he told me that my aunt, his wife, had once been a violinist and owned "a very good" violin. It was destroyed in a fire that burned down their newly built house, about 50 years ago now. She never played the violin again, although she took up the organ and still plays regularly (at age 85+). I could never understand her reaction to the loss of her violin.

Now, my reaction to your need to play: I don't know if I can call myself a musician based on definitions recently bantered around. But I need to play, every day. It's not an addiction, it's a need to nourish my soul. I work with my husband, and lately he's been plotting to get away on his bike WHILE I'M TAKING CARE OF FAMILY BUSINESS, while I'm lucky to get 20 minutes practice after the kids go to bed! You can believe that I'm grumpy these days.

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After Lipinski, I think I'm going to start serious work on the Three major concertos: Beethoven,Brahms and Tchaikovsky

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