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Best Violin Concertos?

57K views 153 replies 89 participants last post by  Otis B. Driftwood 
#1 ·
Apologies if this has been done before. Here are my top 5:

1. Tchaikovsky
2. Mendelssohn
3. Brahms
4. Beethoven
5. Bruch

The famous ones :) (I know Bruch wrote a few, but I think it's obvious which ones I'm talking about!)
 
#2 ·
I smell another top 100 thread!

:p

My favourite is Sibelius. The beautifully sensuous string section with its dance rhythms, and the solo violin melodies are to die for.
 
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#4 · (Edited)
at last somebody posted something interesting! currently my favorite violin concertos are something like this:

overall:
1. sibelius
2. mendelssohn in Em
3. Paganini no.2 in Bm
4. saint saens no.2 in C
5. Khachaturian

other favorites:
beethoven's
mozart's 5 works
bach
tchaikovsky
Bruch, has 3 + 1 konserstuck
Barber's
korngold
vieuxtemps
jeno hubay , has 4 works and love them all
joseph joachim, hungarian style , violin concerto on the Gypsy tune!
prokofiev
glazunov
myaskovsky
Bela Bartok, no.2 in really killer
shostokovich
arensky
wieniawski
dvorak
louis Spohr, has a lot. no.6 and 8 is popular

from UK
stanford
vaugham williams Academica
william walton, also favorite
Samuel Colleridge
Sir Arthur Somerville , both found in Hyperion series, Romantic Violin concertos
Elgar
britten

Rozsa, my newest experience
szymanowski
karlowicz
maszkowsky, also in Romantic Violin concerto by Tasmin Little
Rochberg
Bloch
Lees
schoenberg, even the schoenberg is lovely in violin concerto...:trp:
Martinu, again underrated piece that need more talk
Berwald
Nielsen
Tor Aulin

etc etc


and all the Baroque and classical composers!
Tartini, about a hundred, please choose yourself! :lol:
Telemann
Vanhal
Viotti
Haydn
..... VIVALDI ....

enough material for top 100! Emiellucifugeee, when will you retired from your top 150 symphony??
 
#14 ·
enough material for top 100! Emiellucifugeee, when will you retired from your top 150 symphony??
Oh dear :(

But honestly, when the symphonies list finishes in a couple of weeks ill be in the thick of preparing for exams. Perhaps ask someone else (yourself?)
 
#19 ·
best/favorite violin concertos for me are, in no particular order

Beethoven
Bruch #1
Schoenberg (never thought I would pick a 20th century concerto as my favorite)
Mozart #3

The above are my today's picks but other favorites are Brahms, Vieuxtemps 3-5, Sibelius, Britten, Bach 1043. I can never rank them in order because they change positions all the time in my head.
 
#25 ·
Most of the ones mentioned here are pretty good Romantic violin concertos. I could add another Romantic violin concerto, by Dvorak is not bad either.

Threads like this end up listing just about all the in the standard repertoire anyway ...

Louis Spohr wrote about 15 violin concertos (I think), which I have yet to explore all of.
 
#36 ·
I've heard wonderful things about the Glass, which intrigues me since I'm not his biggest fan. I'll have to get around to listening to it someday- just after I get through all the other stuff I have to listen to.

As for violin concerto's... Beethoven, Bach Double and Brahms stand as the pinnacle in the genre for me (cliche, I know). But I also really love Elgar, Barber, Shostakovich, Adams and the other Bach concerto's. Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Bruch, Stravinsky and Prokofiev's work in the form also get the occasional listen. Mendelssohn, a piece which I once loved, has overstayed its welcome in my ears, and I've never had much interest in the last movement which I think is a real let down after the first two. Mozart's I find tedious. Lalo's, while refreshing at first, didn't do much for me after repeated listens. I guess I'll also give a shout out to Glazunov, Saint-Saens 3, and Vivaldi's work for being enjoyable.

Still have to listen to Bartok, Britten, Glass, Dvorak, Schumann, and I'll being seeing Ades live in a few months, so I'm pretty excited for that. Am I missing any others?
 
#35 ·
Hoelscher does relatively fine with the Saint-Saens second, but you should listen to Ricci on that work. He really kicks. I understand Hoelscher made lots of recordings of unknown works, he really got into the obscure repertoire, but he is no match to Ricci, Just as he is no match to Guila Bustabo in the Wolf-Ferrari.



Lalo composed other works you may enjoy, like the Fantasie Norvegienne and the concerto Op.21. I strongly suggest the recordings by Ricci (avoid Graffin on both, he is as boring as he is in the Saint-Saens set in Hyperion).
 
#37 ·
just listen to Karol Lipinski's VC no.2 'Military' and quite a WOW piece that rarely mentioned. when I read the bio in wiki it even more interesting with his many links to great name in the era, Paganini, pupil of Tartini, Wieniawski, Spohr, Schumann, Liszt etc.

quote :
In 1820 he travelled to Berlin where he met Louis Spohr, and to Russia. In 1829 he went to Warsaw, and played a series of concerts with Paganini that summer that were attended by the nineteen-year-old Frédéric Chopin. However, a rivalry developed between Lipiński and Paganini which destroyed their friendship. Thereafter, whenever Paganini was asked who the greatest violinist was, he would say "I don't know who the greatest is, but Lipiński is certainly the second greatest".
 
#44 ·
just listen to Karol Lipinski's VC no.2 'Military' and quite a WOW piece that rarely mentioned. when I read the bio in wiki it even more interesting with his many links to great name in the era, Paganini, pupil of Tartini, Wieniawski, Spohr, Schumann, Liszt etc.
Interesting. Nice pick. I might give him a listen next time when I get some CPO stuff. (I recently also bought some violin concertos off the CPO - Spohr's complete 15 or so violin concertos. I haven't opened the box yet :lol: ). CPO is becoming one of my favourite labels, so many unkown and interesting works, precisely what the label wants to do, and avoid big name composers.
 
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