Close your eyes and she's an old soul playing this piece! Awesome! I would have thought it was some old grizzled master playing the violin on this. Stunning.?
In the New Year of 1904, a young man in Ainola, Finland has just finished writing a violin concerto. Some say, that he wrote it as a testimony to his failed ambition to become a violin virtuoso, pouring into it every known technical difficulty and then some. Today, it is considered as one of the most intense and difficult violin concerto ever written. Its first premier in Helsinki was a disaster which forced the young man to make plenty of revisions. Subsequently, after a successful Berlin concerto the following year, it has become one of the most recorded violin concertos. The name of the author is Jean Sibelius. In the winter of 1993, a young woman from the other side of the world, traveled to Ainola, Finland and visited the house of Sibelius. She needed to know and understand how this magnificent violin concerto came into being from the land of the midnight sun. Winter in Finland is dark and harsh. It can kill. But, the young lady chose this season, because she knew Sibelius used the winter landscape as a material for his music. The day she visited, Ainola was drenched with snow so deep, that even Lake Tuusula disappeared from view. She stepped into the house and was shown the window that Sibelius chose to keep open to break the winter silence. As she looked out the window in this cold, freezing day, she could make out the outline of the frozen lake and suddenly she felt the intense, brooding melancholy that is synonymous with Sibelius’ name. Now, she finally understood why the maestro described his concerto as “confessions of faith”, and that it was compressed to the point of ultimate silence. “Never write an unnecessary note,” he proclaimed. “Every note must live.” Since then, she made sure each note pouring out of her violin is alive! The young lady looking out of the Sibelius window was 13 years old. Her name is Sarah Chang.?
Holy crap. There are some amazing people out there huh. I'm 15 and I just started playing the violin I can't do vibrato and I still need tapes. I've been playing for two months. But someday I'll be good, and maybe when I'm a grandma I'll be as good as this girl.?
Definitely Sibelius' best work. Truly inspired. Sibelius found a "spot" of intensity that is unmatched in classical (or any other genre') work. It touches us and always will. I had the honor of meeting Ms. Chang while we were waiting for a plane at the Seattle airport. She had her violin of course. I said: "You're Sarah Chang, aren't you?" She was really surprised that I recognized her. It was many, many years ago at the start of her illustrious career. She was gracious and friendly. She remarked to me that she was "grateful for her career", but the "traveling was exhausting." I guess that classical musicians don't expect to be recognized in public. I pity those who have not opened their hearts to classical music. Concertos like this have the ability to touch our hearts at a level that nothing else has. sanjosemike?
It's a fine performance. She ran out of steam in the third movement. Not surprising. Most performances let down. Not Oitrach, not mutter. But Bell is up and down. A truly sublime piece of music.?
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