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NYT: 5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Violin https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/02/arts/music/five-minutes-classical-music-violin.html

In the past, we've asked some of our favorite artists to choose the
five minutes or so they would play to make their friends fall in
love with classical music, the piano, opera, the cello, Mozart and
21st-century composers.

Now we want to convince those curious friends to love the sweet,
songful violin. We hope you find lots here to discover and enjoy;
leave your choices in the comments.

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Andrew Norman, composer

This solo violin piece by Reena Esmail really blew me away when I
first heard it. Like much of her work, it inhabits an intensely
lyrical space informed by both Indian and Western classical musics.
In Vijay Gupta's gripping performance, I hear sounds, colors and
expressions simultaneously familiar and fresh, intimate and epic,
grounded and aloft.

Reena Esmail's "Darshan"

Vijay Gupta, violin

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Zachary Woolfe, Times classical music editor

Who was ever really happy with one scoop of ice cream rather than
two? Bach's Double Concerto is dessert doubled--especially in this
recording, featuring a pair of the 20th century's most honeyed
tones. The violins' interplay is playfully fiery in the work's outer
movements. But here, in the central Largo, the mood is shared,
serene, blossoming longing.

Bach's Double Violin Concerto

Itzhak Perlman and Isaac Stern, violins; Zubin Mehta conducting New
York Philharmonic (Sony Classical)

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Mazz Swift, violinist

With Eddie South's performance of this piece, all you need is three
minutes to fall in love with the violin. Any violinists who listen
to this recording will surely identify at least one reason they
chose to play the instrument, though it doesn't take a seasoned
listener to be completely delighted. The piece has a dazzling array
of challenging techniques, Romantic lyricism and various fiddling
styles, including jazz, Gypsy jazz and old time; the spontaneous
nature of South's performance brings me so much joy.

"Black Gypsy"

Eddie South

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David Allen, Times writer

You look at the title of the fifth movement of Beethoven's Op. 130
string quartet, "Cavatina," and think of an aria, simple and short.
And the piece is both. But what makes its simplicity so special is
not just the way the first violin arcs its line--how it traces out
its song--but also how its partner, the second violin, seems to
echo it, to join it on its path and embrace it, as if in sympathy.
This is the most poignant, tender few minutes that Beethoven ever
wrote for violins.

Beethoven's Op. 130 String Quartet, "Cavatina"

Danish String Quartet (ECM)

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Marcos Balter, composer

When composers are their own performers, as in the violin works of
Paganini, Laurie Anderson and Leroy Jenkins, music becomes a
self-portrait in motion. Secluded in his Brooklyn apartment since
March with his instrument and effect pedals, Darian Thomas has been
writing an intimate and vulnerable sonic diary about our times. In
"Darkness Runs From Light," he weaves--by himself--a lush string
orchestra while breathily singing of angst and optimism: "I was up
last night dreaming/About a new day/I was dreaming. Soaring.
Hoping." His violin hugs us, and we could all use a hug these days.

Darian Thomas's "Darkness Runs From Light"

Darian Thomas

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Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, Times writer

Biber's transcendent solo-violin Passacaglia, from his Rosary
Sonatas, precedes Bach's monumental Chaconne by almost 50 years. Yet
it already inhabits the same architectural grandeur, built by a
single player and just four strings. The music unfolds like a
dialogue between a solemn, dependable bass line and filigree
variations full of fancy, yearning and quiet contemplation.

Biber's Rosary Sonata No. 16

Rachel Podger (Channel Classics)

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Pekka Kuusisto, violinist

Jörg Widmanns's book of 24 duos for violin and cello is basically a breathtaking 24-course meal at Noma featuring caribou sperm, spider
eggs, fermented kangaroo sweat and popcorn. The one about the road
home always gives me a most satisfying fright. It sounds as if a
person with advanced memory loss forgets how a Brahms piece unfolds,
but keeps trying before finally getting so profoundly sidetracked
that it becomes a new language--and then vanishes. It tickles my
fears both personal and global. A gesture both devastating and
detached is a tricky thing to compose, but I think this two-minute
cycle of sighs nails it.

Jörg Widmann's "Vier Strophen vom Heimweh"

Ilya Gringolts, violin; Dmitry Kouzov, cello (Delos)

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Joshua Barone, Times writer

I was an impatient violin student who often got in trouble for
reading ahead and creating, as my teacher said, bad habits. (She was
right.) When I should have been focusing on concertos by Bruch and
Mendelssohn, I was more interested in works beyond my ability--
like Sibelius's Violin Concerto, with its lyrical warmth and lush
textures. It's alluring from the start: The soloist enters over
frosty, barely audible violins, with a mysteriously inviting melody
that gives way to what feels like a series of dark tales, shared
late at night by the flickering glow of a dying fire.

Sibelius's Violin Concerto

Lisa Batiashvili, violin; Daniel Barenboim conducting Staatskapelle
Berlin (Deutsche Grammophon)

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Jessie Montgomery, violinist and composer

"Mother and Child," the second movement of William Grant Still's
Suite for Violin and Piano, is filled with the tenderness you'd
imagine from its title. It hearkens to the storytelling and lyricism
of 1950s Hollywood scores, taking you on a dreamy journey. Even
though he wrote the work in response to a sculpture by Sargent
Johnson, it is known that Still had very close relationship with,
and reverence for, his mother, who was a great supporter of his
ambitions and a leader in their community. I hear in this soulful
and robust performance by Rachel Barton Pine a musical tribute to
motherly figures. This piece warms my heart.

William Grant Still's "Mother and Child"

Rachel Barton Pine, violin; Matthew Hagle, piano (Cedille)

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Imani Danielle Mosley, musicologist

Choosing "The Lark Ascending" to showcase the violin might seem
saccharine or passé; it is commonly voted Britain's favorite piece
on polls each year. But when you strip away its associations with an
imagined pastoral England, what you're left with is an incredibly
joyful flight of fancy. In good hands, the opening violin passages
sound improvised, beginning in the instrument's mellower range. Its full-throatedness, rich tones and upward ascent mimic a lark so
wonderfully, and Vaughan Williams writes so that the violin blends
seamlessly with solo winds while also performing virtuosic runs--a
bird floating and diving.

Vaughan Williams's "The Lark Ascending"

David Nolan, violin; Vernon Handley conducting London Philharmonic
Orchestra (Warner Classics)

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Hilary Hahn, violinist

This is one of the most heart-stopping pieces in the classical
literature. I hold my breath every time I listen to it, or play it.
It's an incredibly special and personal experience. "The Lark
Ascending" is all of art in one place: nature, music, poetry,
imagery and imagination. It lifts you immediately out of your seat,
out of the space you're in, and carries you through the ether,
through intense emotions, through joyful, sunny countryside revelry
and through sheer orchestral lushness. The final note returns you to
your own soul, yet still you are soaring.

Vaughan Williams's "The Lark Ascending"

Iona Brown, violin; Neville Marriner conducting Academy of St.
Martin in the Fields (Decca)

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Anthony Tommasini, Times chief classical music critic

The first movement of Samuel Barber's 1939 Violin Concerto has no
introduction or suspenseful tease. It starts right off with a
surging violin melody, touched with a bit of wistful nostalgia. When
you have a tune that good, why wait? Things turns pensive and
darker, but eventually the melody returns, in full orchestral
splendor. This excerpt will make you want to hear the complete
concerto, which ends with a virtuosic perpetual-motion finale.

Barber's Violin Concerto

Isaac Stern, violin; Leonard Bernstein conducting New York
Philharmonic (Sony Classical)

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Ray Chen, violinist

Since it was invented 400 years ago, the violin has been cast in
many different lights, from an angelic voice celebrating God's glory
to the devil's instrument; it has an extremely wide range of colors
and intention. While many of its famous works display some sort of
virtuosic showmanship, I've recently found an ease and a comfort in
the Largo from Bach's Third Sonata for Solo Violin. It's a personal
favorite that I had to include on my new album, "Solace."

Bach's Violin Sonata No. 3

Ray Chen, violin (Decca)

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John Adams, composer

With recordings I've become something of an archaeologist--
fascinated, and often deeply affected, by how the emotional content
of a piece changes as performing traditions evolve. This passage
from the Elgar Violin Concerto, recorded in 1932 by Yehudi Menuhin
--just 16 at the time--reveals the violin as the most vocal of
instruments. Menuhin's is a way with the instrument that seems to
have vanished. Give yourself a moment to get beyond the initial
blushing connection with corny old Hollywood romances. Then hear how
the elasticity of phrasing and the expressive slides between notes
have the same power to touch you as a great jazz singer.

Elgar's Violin Concerto

Yehudi Menuhin, violin; Edward Elgar conducting London Symphony
Orchestra (Warner Classics)

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Seth Colter Walls, Times writer

Bartok indulged some of his regular obsessions here, including
folk-like melody and modernist patterns. He also thought carefully
about the violin: In the first movement, the soloist and the
orchestral strings engage in some deft handoffs. Before the
exuberant cadenza, the violin plays some quarter-tones (starting at
49 seconds, in the clip below). Once the orchestra rejoins, you can
find some capital-r Romantic yearning--yet another facet of this
composer's expressive vitality.

Bartok's Violin Concerto No. 2

Tibor Varga, violin; Ferenc Fricsay conducting Berlin Philharmonic
(Deutsche Grammophon)

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André Rieu, violinist

¿When I think of playing the violin, the first thing that comes to
mind is love. Initially my love for my first violin teacher. I was
captivated by her vibrato and longed to imitate the technique which
produced such an amazing sound. I practiced and practiced until one
day I succeeded in playing vibrato myself. I was the happiest boy on
earth because I felt this was the sound that made the violin so
beautiful. From that moment on I practiced day after day, year after
year, always searching for romantic melodies which filled my heart
with joy and which I discovered made other people happy, too. I
still practice every day because this is what makes it possible for
me to do the most beautiful job in the world: making people happy by
playing my violin.

"My Way"

André Rieu

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Deborah Borda, president, New York Philharmonic

It is said that the violin comes closest to expressing the qualities
of the human voice. I experience it as the most human and humane of
all instruments. In "Erbarme dich, mein Gott," from the "St. Matthew
Passion," the violin entwines the voice as a full partner. The text
is a plea for mercy, but the violin, too, speaks, its plaintive
grace moving us to a place of empathy and forgiveness. I chose this,
rather than the bravura of Paganini or the heights of the canon of
concertos, as an expression of the purest yet most ravishing sound
of the instrument. It carries a message of special resonance in
these troubling times.

Bach's "Erbarme dich"

John Eliot Gardiner conducting English Baroque Soloists (Archiv)

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