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An antidote for the news

December 9, 2009 at 6:08 AM

What would happen if we could hear something like this live?

 There was an embedded video earlier. Hmm

Back again

 I'm a huge fan of Toscha Seidel, thank you for posting this wonderful video!

Would be beautiful for sure but all the critics would want to kill the performer for doing glissandos like this...   But the violin lovers would be going crazy! Don't know by the way the reason you are not allowed to make these today?

Anne-Marie

 Portamento was normal ornamentation  for singers (cfr. Garcia's treatise) and subsequently for instrumentalist until quite late in the XX century...while all the sources treat vibrato as an exception...why is it the opposite now I can't say exactly...but the switch has something to do with general music education, more and more centered on exactness of reading than expressiveness. At least this came out from a discussion in a course in my master...really interesting.

Thanks for the precisions!   yes we instinctivly feel when we look/listen to old vs new performances that expressivity was to this eara what precision and scratch free playing is to our era...

Anne-Marie

I'm also a big Toscha fan and I never get tired of listening to this piece.

Its music that reaches through time.

I think this is also a good example of impulse vibrato

 

Slides are critical to beautiful violin playing. Its a violin not a piano.