Ysaye's Prelude from Sonata #2 - Rachel Barton Pine

[OrianaDiazL]

BRAVOOO!!! BRAVISSIMA!!!

[dropsoffaith]

baroque bow?

[NiteDogTeamBS]

Bravo! Thank you for the video.

[Leopardsand]

What was Ysaye imitating at around 2:52?

[celloWiz10]

I really love all of your playing. It's always very high quality...just fabulous...and I love your sense of humor!

[Lokan3]

Fascinating! You really bring this music to life. My son's violin teacher suggested he listen to you playing solo Bach but I found this first. Now I will see if I can buy some recordings online.

[RachelBartonPine]

@Lokan3 Thanks! You can buy all my albums right on my website

[DrWillwerth]

That's a very interesting anecdote about Ysaye poking fun at Thibaud, and you pull it off beautifully in your performance. Would you mind sharing your source for the anecdote?

[Pluperfect9]

That is so interesting! It never occurred to me that this sonata was a joke. I went to a lecture where the speaker explained how Ysaye wove the Dies Irae into the melody because Ysaye felt like he had not achieved anything during his life, and would never compare to Bach all while his day of wrath was approaching

[hollermahler]

Does playing it with a bach bow make it harder? Easier? Just different?

[sabbagha18]

It depends. They're shorter, so you get less mileage out of each bowstroke, but if you're playing in the Baroque style it makes the bow "style" come a lot more naturally.

[DeArmeStudent]

why did you play it so fast in the end??? from 4:04 on, undoubtly the most beautiful piece of this prelude, it doesnt sounds nice anymore...too bad, because it was a pretty good preformance.

[TomQuags93]

This is absolutely amazing! I love your videos where you give introductions to pieces...I always learn great new facts! You are an amazing violinist! : )

[kammermusiken]

Still with a baroque bow a very powerful sound. Reading Jaap Schröder's book on performance of Bach's sonatas I ask myself if we are all going to destroy the 440 pitch forks in, let's say 20 years for Bach and Mozart. All these Stradivariuses and Guarneris are doped. They sound like trumpets to me. I'm going more and more for 415 Hz using old spare fiddle and the sound really calms me down.

[rybakostis]

You're making some fun of serious music.

[RachelBartonPine]

No, the comedy was Ysaye's intention, he was a very melodramatic performer at times.

[rybakostis]

How do you know it? Do you see some comedy in 2nd sonata?

[M145A5V9836E]

Is that is really you...? Your recording the amazing Milstein's Lizst's Mephisto Waltz transcription...???

Wow... I didn't realise someone like you would be youtubing around(!) wow... anyway, that as well as the Ysaÿe here are quite amazing :-) Thank-you so much for being and playing and giving to others to hear!

I was surprised first seeing Aaron Minsky youtubing, so now I get over you more easily :-)

[tjsr21]

@RachelBartonPine @rybakostis

I don't think making fun is quite the right way of putting it... It's by no means a comedy work - the second movement and fourth movement titles (melancholy and the furies) rather put paid to that for one, but that isn't to say that there aren't elements of humour in it. Both levels can happily coexist at once and there's nothing wrong with highlighting that. I'm preparing the sonata myself at the moment - thanks for some new ideas. :)

[jaywbe]

hey rachael, that means that you're my musical aunt a couple of times removed of some sort :)

anyway, great performance, must've been some work punching away at ysaye with a baroque bow. did the piece more than enough justice, ysaye would've been proud!

[panizzi47]

Excuse me, the sound on my PC is not good, so I can´t understand what she sais. Could someone write in a few words the sense of the story? I´m very interested in....

[JustinK078]

And I can't believe I missed you coming to Greenville, SC two years ago. My teacher even told me about it!

[JustinK078]

I love the intensity!!

[firebreathone]

For people who want to skip the talking:

music starts at 2:04

[ACTninja]

she goes 2 slow on sum parts

[FERViolin2010]

for reak n she talks to much

[vlhere]

i like teh fact that she talks too much...some performers just enter and play without having any establishment of with them....

[darolanger]

Hi Rachel

So glad you posted this with the story & everything. Still remember the first time I heard this- you played it on a rainy evening at the dining hall at Mark's Nashville camp & everyone was thunderstruck. this month I finally ordered the music, and just before it cam i broke my wrist! so I just turned Mike Marshall on to this movement, and he's tripping out on it. In fact, he found your performance here on this site. So great, you. Hi to Greg.

love,

DA

[babyfreshpony]

Rachel, you are the coolest violinist alive. I mean it. After a whole concert, you give an enchanting funny story and THEN pull off Ysaye with a Baroque bow..... Wow, girl! Thank you!

[Blakeandhisviola]

Well. Rachel I must commend you on your amazing skill and technique. My five year old cousin came in to the office and asked, "Who is making that pretty sound.".

See you in march whne you come to play in Georgia!!!!

~~blake

[zucchini2007]

Rachel is such a beautiful, red-headed woman!! When she played "Happy Birthday" for the NMSO's 75th anniversary, I was very impressed by how well she could play such intricate melodies on her violin! She's awesome!

[violalord1]

stop cursing on your instrument!!! Just kidding.

[davidbviolin]

Wow Rachel, very nice performance!

[soundviewbx]

Excellent!! Superb!!! Do you teach?? lol

[HuangKaiVun]

I appreciated the "confused bow" act between Ysaye's writing and the Bach snippets.

The high speed of the baroque bow is well suited to a 16th note piece such as this Ysaye "Obsession".

[lastrafe]

What amazing musicality on this complex piece!! I like your interpretation better than Vengerov's :) Have you ever taken the very fast part slower? If so which do you prefer from a listener's perspective?

[RachelBartonPine]

Ysaye's sonatas are like Bach's - there's so much freedom to make your performance individual - I interpret this movement a little differently every time I play it!

[liphookedbullhead]

It is a tragedy that the baroque violin and its timbre is kept within period music. I just love its tone and darker dips.

[RachelBartonPine]

Actually, it's just a baroque bow with my modernized 1742 Guarneri del Gesu - but you're absolutely right about the baroque violin. On a positive note, I'm happy to report that plenty of modern music is being written for the viola da gamba!

[noledude9]

someone who gets it. FANTASTIC!

[gersoncm]

Rachel, please come to Costa Rica to play for us. We need it !!!!

[Lesolin]

Sounds good, and on a baroque bow to boot, ha.

[mapleleafgal]

rachel, i have always loved this piece but hearing your story about it makes me love it even more! what a great performance.

[fyjx]

does she always talk this much before playing?

[RachelBartonPine]

It was an encore :)

[ViolinCyndee]

Spectactular!! And very interesting story too!!

[gawgul]

Great story telling --get more of a sense what a larger than life character Ysaye must have been--get a sense of your spontaneity, curiosity and varied interests rolled into one here, too, always something new and surprising! even the baroque bow, a happy coincidence...

[gawgul]

really well played, especially love the clear sound and articulation!

[violinfan]

Wow, I never knew this whole story - it really makes the piece make more sense

[scottbos68]

ysaye on a baroque bow

doesnt look easy haha