Mullova plays Bach´s Chaconne (Part 1)

Is this considered to be the hardest piece written for the violin? To be honest it doesn't really sound that difficult to me. How technically difficult would be on a scale 1 - 10?

It's one of the hardest pieces to play well. The number of great violinists (see Heifetz, for example) who have played it unsuccessfully is a testament to that.

Well Friedant, you would have a ton of people disagreeing with you. heifetz's set of Bach recordings are "different" from what you would usually hear, but that doesn't mean that they were unsuccessful. That's just your opinion.

The Chaconne and the Bach S&P's for that matter are considered one of the must difficult pieces for the violin, because of the difficulty in technique, but more specifically the musicality side of them. There's also the dilemma straddling the line of baroque/romantic.

Sure, it's obviously a matter of opinion. Personally, I feel that Heifetz ignores the fact that this is a piece of Baroque music, that he chooses Romanticism over accuracy and clarity, and that the overall sense of the structure of the piece is lost. On the other hand, I love his recordings of many other pieces.

LOL!!

Heifetz is that example, right?

=P

Listen to Janine Jansen's recording. Perfect!!

10. Try and play it, and you'll see. It's not gymnastics- it's fugal, and the violin simply wasn't designed for fugues. The result is a hopelessly complicated but beautiful polyphonic weave of notes. It's practically impossible to play in tune, and then you have to get the voices working together right. It also takes a surprising amount of bow control- every not has to be clear like crystal.

So easy to play. (¬¬)

It is difficult!!

It's absolutely true with Perlman; the music goes through him. Whereas Hahn, lacks passion. VM ends it well enough, but the start has no personality.

I remember how beautifully she played in the Tchaikovsky competition so many years ago. (Thank goodness it was all over American television at that time--now we are indeed a "wasteland".... She was so pretty and what a talent.
Here is the finished artist in her own true voice. A joy to hear and behold.

there is definitely vibrato. i'm not going to argue about whether or not it's boring because that's purely subjective, but she definitely uses vibrato.