{"id":48034,"date":"2024-09-30T16:02:20","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T14:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/a93cb982-4ee6-4a72-9c1f-001a191d6228"},"modified":"2024-09-30T17:07:15","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T15:07:15","slug":"these-are-the-7-greatest-american-violin-pieces","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/these-are-the-7-greatest-american-violin-pieces\/","title":{"rendered":"These are the 7 greatest American violin pieces"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Monday, 30 September 2024 at 14:02 PM<\/p>

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Read on to discover the greatest American violin<\/a> pieces…<\/strong><\/p>

Barber \u2013 Violin Concerto<\/h2>
When I perform this piece in Europe, I am sometimes asked where I discovered it, as though I dug it up in an attic. In the US, though, it is one of the most popular violin concertos. Barber<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s music is lush and heartfelt, with none of the self-consciousness that some of his contemporaries felt about writing Romantic music\u00a0during the time of modernism. For this\u00a0piece to work you have to play it with a kind of innocence, without succumbing to the temptation to do too many slides. It\u2019s not meant to be a cheese fest, and is in fact a deeply moving work.<\/p>
<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Augustin Hadelich performs Barber’s Violin Concerto with the WDR Symphony Orchestra<\/figcaption><\/figure><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/five-essential-works-samuel-barber\">The best works by Samuel Barber<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Great American violin pieces… John Adams \u2013 <em>Road Movies<\/em><\/h2><p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/john-adams\">John Adams<\/a><\/strong> is a master of Minimalism, and here he does a wonderful job of capturing the joys of driving in America. The first movement conveys the relaxed feeling of travelling down a long road. You feel the engine, wheels and maybe some potholes (roads in America can be really bad; you wouldn\u2019t hear so many potholes if John Adams was German.) The second movement is languid, evoking a desert landscape or a traffic jam on a summer\u2019s day, while the third movement is like\u00a0fast highway driving \u2013\u00a0by the end, I\u2019m euphoric.\u00a0<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/six-best-pieces-john-adams\">Six of the best pieces by John Adams<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson \u2013 <em>Louisiana Blues Strut<\/em><\/h2><p>Perkinson had a varied career: he wrote serious music, arrangements and music for TV and commercials.\u00a0This\u00a0composition starts playfully, in the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/blues-music\">Blues<\/a><\/strong> style, with\u00a0a real swagger to it, but there are all sorts of complex rhythmic tricks to surprise the audience, and sometimes the key goes off to weird places.\u00a0What\u2019s difficult is that it has to be played with\u00a0\u2018swing\u2019 (which is hard enough for classical players), but not so much that it distorts the syncopations. So you have to turn the swing on and off constantly. It\u2019s\u00a0rhythmically one of the hardest pieces I know, but\u00a0enormously fun for the audience, who will often clap along.<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/20-greatest-violinists-ever\">The 20 greatest violinists of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Great American violin pieces… Amy Beach \u2013 Romance<\/h2><p>I sometimes find late Romanticism a bit emotionally exhausting, but in this short piece by <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/amy-beach\">Amy Beach<\/a><\/strong> it\u2019s just gorgeous.\u00a0It\u2019s a slow, sentimental work for violin and piano in a similar vein to<em> Salut d\u2019amour<\/em>, and it\u2019s one of the best examples of its genre. It really pulls at your heart strings and yes, the way that Beach enjoys every suspension is quite indulgent. But there\u2019s a real pleasure in playing something that\u2019s so sweet.\u00a0<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embedwrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Augustin Hadelich & Orion Weiss play Beach: Romance for Violin and Piano, Op. 23\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Bo1XliDasQA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Augustin Hadelich joins Orion Weiss to perform Amy Beach’s Romance<\/figcaption><\/figure><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/romantic-classical-music-inspired-love\">Romantic classical music: the best pieces inspired by love<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Charles Ives \u2013 Sonata No. 4, \u2018Children\u2019s Day\u2019<\/h2><p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/charles-ives\">Charles Ives<\/a><\/strong> always swam against the tide. In this piece, he evokes the memory of a religious children\u2019s camp he attended in the 1870s. There was a lot of communal music-making at these camps, and in this piece, you hear several songs sung at the same time from different rooms in different keys, until eventually it gets quite cacophonous. I find it joyful but also nostalgic: you can imagine the soundscape of this camp, and you get the sense that these are intense memories for Ives.\u00a0The slow movement, with its slow hymns, is really transporting.<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/american-music-a-to-z\">Anderson to Zappe: an A-Z of American music<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Leonard Bernstein \u2013 <em>Serenade (after Plato\u2019s \u2018Symposium\u2019)<\/em><\/h2><p>Although this piece is loosely inspired by the <em>Symposium<\/em>, Plato\u2019s Socratic dialogue about the nature of love, I wish <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/leonard-bernstein\">Leonard Bernstein<\/a><\/strong> hadn\u2019t referred to this in the title: it makes audiences expect something intellectual and hard to understand when, in fact, it\u2019s full of joy. There are beautiful moments of lyricism in the slow movement,\u00a0while the rest is more playful and jazzy. It works best when players can connect with its warmth, as well as its elements of dance and jazz.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embedwrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Janine Jansen | Bernstein: Serenade for violin, string orchestra, harp and percussion - LIVE 2017\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Rp868n6rem8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Janine Jansen performs Bernstein’s <em>Serenade<\/em> with the London Symphony Orchestra<\/figcaption><\/figure><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/five-essential-works-leonard-bernstein\">The best works by Leonard Bernstein<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Great American violin pieces… Eddie South \u2013 <em>Black Gypsy<\/em><\/h2><p>South was a violinist and prodigy, who grew up in Chicago in the early-20th century. He was black, so couldn\u2019t have a classical career in America. Instead, he played in <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/jazz\/what-is-jazz\">jazz<\/a><\/strong> bands and travelled to Europe, where he met Django Reinhardt \u2013 godfather of Gypsy jazz \u2013 and absorbed many influences before returning to America.\u00a0<em>Black Gypsy<\/em> is an effective little showpiece \u2013 jazzy, charming, sentimental \u2013 and one that doesn\u2019t take itself too seriously. I\u2019m sure if the music were easier to get hold of, it would be played all\u00a0the time.\u00a0<\/p><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/composers\/best-black-composers-you-should-know-about\">The best black composers you should know about<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Who is Augustin Hadelich?<\/h2><p>Born in Italy to German parents, Augustin Hadelich was a child prodigy who studied both violin and piano. He went on to attend the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/the-juilliard-school-history-and-famous-alumni\">Juilliard School<\/a><\/strong> and, in 2006, won first prize at the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. Since then, he has become one of the world\u2019s best-known soloists, and regularly performs with orchestras including the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/berlin-philharmonic\">Berlin Philharmonic<\/a><\/strong> and the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/klaus-makela-to-become-concertgebouws-next-chief-conductor\">Royal Concertgebouw<\/a><\/strong>. His new album <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.warnerclassics.com\/release\/american-road-trip\">American Road Trip<\/a><\/strong><\/em> \u2013 a journey across the vast US landscape \u2013 is out now.<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Published: Monday, 30 September 2024 at 14:02 PM Read on to discover the greatest American violin pieces… Barber \u2013 Violin Concerto When I perform this piece in Europe, I am sometimes asked where I discovered it, as though I dug it up in an attic. In the US, though, it is one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":48035,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/these-are-the-7-greatest-american-violin-pieces.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/these-are-the-7-greatest-american-violin-pieces-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/these-are-the-7-greatest-american-violin-pieces-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/these-are-the-7-greatest-american-violin-pieces-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/these-are-the-7-greatest-american-violin-pieces-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/these-are-the-7-greatest-american-violin-pieces.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/09\/these-are-the-7-greatest-american-violin-pieces.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Monday, 30 September 2024 at 14:02 PM Read on to discover the greatest American violin pieces… Barber \u2013 Violin Concerto When I perform this piece in Europe, I am sometimes asked where I discovered it, as though I dug it up in an attic. In the US, though, it is one of the…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/48034"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}