Concerto in a Minor by Vivaldi

March 4, 2005 at 06:47 AM · Love the piece. Which movement are you doing? And are you doing the suzuki version? if so, you only need third position....some second in the third movement. just dont overwork it.

March 4, 2005 at 05:09 PM · I just started working on this piece also! I will be very interested to hear what the more experienced people on this board have to say too. Sorry I don't have any advice to help you, as I'm sure you are a more advanced player than I am!

Karen

March 4, 2005 at 07:37 PM · I used the International Version of the music so it might be a bit different. I think it's important that you work on the musical aspect of it. Definitely listen to good recordings.

Practice reeeeelly slowly and if you make a mistake, slow down even more and do it until it's right. When it's right, repeat 3 times for every time you got it wrong.

If you do this for awhile you will easily get into a good youth orchestra.

I also think they look alot at how well you know the music.

i auditioned for my youth orchestra with that same concerto. Even though my intonation was not as good as it could have been they let me in I think because of the way I followed dynamics and style. This is very important for an orchestra (I think :-)

GOOD LUCK!

March 4, 2005 at 10:08 PM · Greetings,

I think this is actually a rather difficult concerto...

The first thing you have to decide in the firts movement is what kind of articulation/length you want on the 8th notes. Play around with imagining letters of the alphabet, singing the theme to that letter and then and try to reproduce that sound with the bow.

You might try taking a smooth detache with no acent as a start point and experiemnting with differne tlengths and accents.

I suggets you try and get the sound you wnat without using vibrato. Once you have the sound with the bow then the vibrato should be very small and used to enhance what you are doing with the bow.

When you do this kind of work keep in mind the long phrases. this piece gets chopped up into little pieces most of the time.

Having figured out what the long phrasesare you might also think about diffenreces in character assigend to each one. For example, I often hear a dilaogue between a man and a woman in this work. So the opening few barsare a very masculine even aggressive (?) statement then a lady anderws immediately with a slighlty more lyrical sound in the second phrase.

Looking at that more feminie second phrase it repeats the same fragment four times (?) so you have to ask what is the relationship between each one? dDo you drop the sound and make each one slighly louder? The reverse? Loud /soft loud/soft or what? Do you choose not to use vibratyo on a couple just for variety.

I used the Galamian edition which is basically exclelent but you might notice a couple fo times the section ends with some dynamic martele which he tends to put in third posiiton. Actaully, I think this kind of passgae sounds better in first.

Also, in this edition he slurs the 16th notes in groups of four. My instinct is to play one note ona down bow and three on an up but that is up to you. You could do it one way the first time and differentl;y the second time of course.

In general, a good idea with this pice is to practice it without vibrato so thta you can hit every note dead in tune.

Cheers,

Buri

March 5, 2005 at 03:47 AM · I agree entirely with the 16th note articulation of first note down-bow and slur the other 3...So many use the Suzuki bowing that may be an excellent training device..to slip into

Viotti or the Beethoven concerto, but musical sense seems to come from Buri's suggested articulation...and it's easier.

March 5, 2005 at 04:06 AM · Oh, wow, so much advice and suggestions!!!

I think I'm playing the 1st move. (I'm playing the Suzuki version, not from the book, though).

I'm definitely playing it very slowly. I'm only doing sections at a time (I don't have the strength to conquer it all at once). It's very out of tune!!!!! But hopefully that will change in the next month.

I'm only playing 3rd and 2nd position, which is good (which is also how high I can go right now). I worked out the bowings and fingerings with my teacher today, ao I don't have to worry about practicing it wrong.

I feel weird playing it now knowing I will play it in my next book (in Suzuki 3 now), but hey, at least I'll know how to play it!

Well, it sounds horrible right now, but hopefully, with an hour's practice everyday, it will improve. I love the piece, so I can't wait to play it.

Oh, and Buri, thank you for all the suggestions! I won't play vibrato with it (specially since I'm very out of tune right now). That is a good suggestion. I will pay a lot of attention to what you said, it's very helpful!

The bowings are where my teachers (orchestra and private) disagree. My orchestra teacher wants me to do the down bow on the first note and slur the next three, but my private teacher wants me to slur all of them as written.

Thank you all for the replies!!! I really appreciate them!

March 5, 2005 at 04:02 AM · Sara, I like Natchez's version of this concerto with its bow patterns and dynamics.

I would recommend you before starting to play from the very beginning to practice some most difficult fragments (I always do it with students, so when they actually start to play it, they can go easy through a whole movement).

So, pratice separately measures 17, 20, 34-most difficult! (I am about 1st mvmnt). Of course, you have to finish all these motiffs with the last note which belongs to the following measure. I'll not describe bowings in these fragments, your teacher might have own view... But anyway notes attack have to be equal down and up bow. When you can do it well, you can try to add one note from previous measure, thinking about starting from pick-up note (actually, it is not just pick-up; later you will notice lots of 'double-faced' fragments, where the last note finishes and at the same time starts a new phrase).

Next- practice sequences from 3rd solo part paying attention on the intonation of last three eighth notes from each phrase.

Next-2nd solo. Don't know your version, so can't give some points.

After that-4th solo, the most difficult one... Check fingering very carefully in the 5th measure of this solo: I like to do it in 3rd position, starting from 5th note, which is 'd' harmonic.

Goog luck!

March 5, 2005 at 04:59 AM · Sara, just read your posting. The version from Suzuki book is almost same as Natchez, I wrote about. So, if you are Suzuki student, you know how to master the measures 17, 20 and 34:)

You can add as supplemental practice Wohlfahrt's Etudes #3 and #4 from op.45. Also you will need a-minor scale at least two octaves and Position Etude (Suzuki Vol.4, page 7).

Good luck!

March 5, 2005 at 07:05 AM · Just a general note, try to keep a steady tempo and refrain from rushing. I remember when I studied it, I played the ending was almost two times faster then original tempo! It's easy to get carried away by the sixteenth notes (at least for me anyways) Have fun with the Vivaldi.