Violin Archives

Violin Archives Daily violin to full orchestra performances.
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13/08/2026

Ivry Gitlis plays Bach in front of France Gall and Michel Berger (Paris, 1978).

The piece is called « Gavotte en Rondeau » from Partita for solo violin No.3 in E major BWV 1006 by Bach.

Ivry Gitlis (1922–2020) was one of the last true individuals of the Golden Age, possessing a lineage that connected him to the greatest teachers in history, including Carl Flesch, George Enescu, and Jacques Thibaud. Throughout his 70-year career, Gitlis performed with nearly every major orchestra, from the LPO to the NY Phil, and collaborated with cultural icons like The Rolling Stones and John Lennon.

Born in Haifa, he became a symbol of artistic defiance, always prioritizing character over the polished, uniform competition sound that dominates the modern era. He didn’t care about mistakes although his technical foundation was rock solid. He belonged to the school of Heifetz and Elman—players who were identifiable within a single note.

The lesson here is about owning your interpretation: you might think that vibrato is too present for Bach, I would argue Gitlis know what he’s doing and that he is using his own voice. He is actually pretty calm here, as in other videos, his rubato can be pushed to the extreme —making it very challenging for any accompanying pianists— he might use a subtle slide at the beginning, a sudden ritenuto in the middle, or choose to completely drop his vibrato for a piano effect.

Anyways, I love that he’s playing in front of France Gall and Michel Berger. They formed one of the most iconic romantic and artistic partnerships in French music history. After marrying on June 22, 1976, Berger composed timeless pop hits for Gall, shaping French pop culture through massive hits like “Il jouait du piano debout” and “Ella, elle l’a” until Berger’s sudden death in 1992.

A beautiful testament to Maestro Gitlis that Yehudi Menuhin once called « the most human of all violinists. »

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11/08/2026

Late maestro Seiji Ozawa conducting Beethoven’s final piece: his String Quartet No. 16 in F Major, Op. 135 (Transcription for orchestra). This is the 3rd movement, Lento assai, e cantabile e tranquillo played by the Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland in Paris (2015).

Beethoven composed this in 1826, less than six months before his death. He was struggling against total deafness, declining health, and isolation.

The quartet is famously remembered for the philosophical riddle inscribed on its finale score: “Muss es sein?” (“Must it be?”) answered by “Es muss sein!” (“It must be!”) under the heading “Der schwer gefaßte Entschluß” (“The difficult decision”).

Extending the grand tradition of Mahler and Weingartner in expanding intimate chamber works for full string orchestra, this transcription of Beethoven’s final musical testament beautifully intertwines with Ozawa’s lifelong dedication to nurturing young musicians.

Abandoning his baton entirely, Ozawa conducts, rather sculpts the sound from the air. He guides the expanded ensemble with such luminous warmth. He draws out an endless, shimmering legato revealing the ultimate truth: music must and will go on.

When he was 15, Seiji Ozawa (1936-2024) broke two fingers in a rugby match and was forced to abandon his dreams of becoming a concert pianist. He turned instead to conducting under mentor Hideo Saito. He went on to study with Charles Munch and Herbert von Karajan, win the Besançon Competition, serve as Leonard Bernstein’s assistant at the New York Philharmonic. He broke barriers as the first Asian conductor to achieve global fame.

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10/08/2026

He was Heifetz’ favorite student: 25 yo Erick Friedman playing the Bruch Violin Concerto No.1 (3rd mvmt, Finale). Georges Pretre is conducting the Orchestre National de France (Paris, 1964)

This is such a study worthy excerpt: crisp bow strokes, ringing projection, and perfect articulation. I love his youthful bravura and his stage presence!

Friedman’s virtuosity was no accident—it was forged under the demanding eye of Jascha Heifetz, who considered the young prodigy his prize pupil. Born in Newark, New Jersey, Friedman began lessons at age six, studied under Ivan Galamian at Juilliard and Nathan Milstein, and eventually joined Heifetz’s legendary masterclasses at USC in 1962.

At just 17, he became the youngest violinist ever accepted as a private student of Jascha Heifetz, the most formidable violinist of the century. Heifetz was famously demanding and sparing with praise, yet he called Friedman “my most gifted student”.

His achievements were substantial, though history has not been as kind to his reputation as to those of some contemporaries. Friedman recorded the Bartók duets and concertante works with Heifetz, played under conductors like Bernstein, Ormandy, and Krips, toured internationally, and won both the Grammy and the Grand Prix du Disque. Isaac Stern once described Friedman’s playing as “radiantly precise,” and Mischa Elman praised “the unusual beauty of his sound.”

Yet despite this admiration, Friedman never reached Heifetz-like fame, partly because a car accident in the 1970s permanently limited his career. After his recovery, he turned increasingly to teaching, eventually becoming a distinguished professor at Yale and later at the University of Connecticut. He passed away of cancer in 2004, aged 64.

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08/08/2026

The Gee whiz got me cackling🤣 Itzhak Perlman playing Yankee Doodles in 1993. Here is an overview from the Fred Rogers Institute website:

“Itzhak Perlman lets Mister Rogers look carefully at his violin. Mister Rogers asks him to play “Yankee Doodle.” Perlman tells how difficult it is to even produce a sound on the violin when you first start playing. When Mister Rogers asks if he ever uses the violin to express particular emotions, Perlman says that musicians are always expressing their feelings through what they play. So, Mister Rogers wants to hear what Perlman loves to play.

This television visit was possible because Perlman was in town to play with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Perlman must have been impressed with Fred because he returned to Pittsburgh ten years later to play at his memorial service in 2003.”

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07/08/2026

Italian cellist Antonio Janigro playing Gabriel Fauré’s Après un rêve, Op. 7, No. 1 alongside pianist Ginette Doyen (1962).

Originally composed in 1877 for voice and piano setting an anonymous Tuscan poem translated by Romain Bussine, it was transcribed for cello.

This is the perfect example of legatissimo and breath control thanks to seamless bow changes. Look at how the bow moves in an uninterrupted stream… It breathes naturally over Doyen’s quiet piano chords!

Who better than Antonio Janigro (1918–1989) and the distinguished French pianist Ginette Doyen to interpret that dream? Doyen was married to violinist Jean Fournier—brother of the legendary cellist Pierre Fournier, who was both Janigro’s contemporary and close personal friend. (I’ve posted him before, please look it up!) The duo recorded extensively for the American Westminster label, including their landmark 1950s chamber recordings of Debussy and Brahms.

Janigro was born in Milan, he entered the conservatory at just nine before moving to Paris to study under Diran Alexanian and Pablo Casals at the École Normale de Musique, frequently playing duets with Dinu Lipatti. During WWII, a concert tour stranded him in Zagreb, where he became a beloved professor at the Conservatory. In 1954, he made history by founding I Solisti di Zagreb (The Zagreb Soloists)—pioneering the then-unprecedented concept of a cellist directing a chamber orchestra from his chair, a model later echoed by figures like Mstislav Rostropovich and Luigi Boccherini’s modern revivals.

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07/08/2026

Ferras died by su***de at 49 after a battle with depression…

Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47, performed by French violinist Christian Ferras (1933–1982) in 1965, with Zubin Mehta and the Orchestre National de la RTF in Paris. This is the second movement, the Adagio di molto: one of my favorite interpretations and you will actually see a whole tear fall right after this excerpt…

A child prodigy who debuted in Paris at 13 playing Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole, Ferras mastered the Franco-Belgian school before studying under Boris Kamenski and George Enesco. After winning the 1948 Scheveningen Competition (forming his legendary duo with Pierre Barbizet) and the 1949 Long-Thibaud, his career skyrocketed. Guided by Vatelot to acquire the 1721 « Le Président » and 1728 « Milanollo-Teresa » Stradivariuses, Ferras reached historic heights in the 1960s—recording six iconic concertos with Karajan, playing for Pope John XXIII, and performing at the Danish royal wedding.

Yet behind this grace lay a tragic 15-year battle with depression and alcoholism. Tormented by global touring, his game began to fade and engagements slipped away. Appointed professor at the Conservatoire in 1975, he made a triumphant return at Salle Gaveau in May 1982, only to play his final concert in Vichy that August. On September 14, 1982, Ferras leapt to his death from his 10th-floor Paris apartment at Place de Barcelone—his passing tragically overshadowed that same day by Princess Grace of Monaco.

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04/08/2026

100 cellists gathered to play this underrated piece: Religioso by Goltermann. This was in Seoul, in 2015, featuring this ensemble, joined by duo Cello Duello and conducted by Kang Chang-woo.

Georg Goltermann (1824–1898) was a German cellist, composer, and conductor, born in Hanover and active mainly in Frankfurt, where he served as Kapellmeister of the Stadttheater. Trained in Munich with the cellist Joseph Menter and the composer Ignaz Lachner—part of the broader Mendelssohn/Schumann-era German tradition—he built his reputation touring as a virtuoso cellist before turning to conducting.

Religioso (Op. 53 No. 1) comes from his “Morceaux de salon,” a set of short character pieces originally written for cello and piano, typical of intimate 19th-century salon culture. The marking religioso নির্দেশs a devotional, hymn-like style, built on sustained tone, lyrical phrasing, and a singing cantabile line. In its original form, it is a modest, expressive miniature; in large-scale arrangements like this one for 100 cellists, the piece shifts from a personal voice to a collective, organ-like sonority.

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03/08/2026

“Music is not just sound. It is the air we breathe, the feeling we share, and the silence we understand together.” - Seiji Ozawa

I was feeling nostalgic so here is Sihi Ozawa and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra playing Brahms’ Symphony No.4 in E minor (first movement featured here). It’s from a live in Japan (1993).

Seiji Ozawa (1935–2024), one of the most influential Japanese conductors, was born in Shenyang and trained in Tokyo under Hideo Saito before moving to Europe. He rose to international prominence after winning the Besançon Conducting Competition in 1959, catching the attention of Charles Munch, and later working alongside Herbert von Karajan in Berlin and Leonard Bernstein in New York.

In the 1960s, he held key positions with the Toronto Symphony and the Ravinia Festival (summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra), while debuting with major European ensembles including the Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, and the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival.

He became Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony in 1970, and in 1973 began his landmark tenure with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, leading it for nearly 30 years. Deeply devoted to his mentor, he founded the New Japan Philharmonic in 1972 and the Saito Kinen Orchestra in 1984, later launching the Matsumoto Festival in 1992 (renamed in his honor in 2015).

Ozawa also had a major presence in opera, conducting at the Paris Opera, Vienna State Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera. He premiered works such as Dutilleux’s The Shadows of Time and received numerous honors, including the Légion d’Honneur. He passed away in Tokyo in 2024 at the age of 88.

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01/08/2026

You know it's good when the orchestra looks at you like this :)
Augustin Hadelich () and Gautier Capuçon () performing the famous Brahms Hungarian Dance no. 5 (Vienna, 2025).
Originally composed in 1869 as a set of piano duets inspired by csárdás folk rhythms, Johannes Brahms's Hungarian Dance No. 5 relies on volatile rubato, explosive accents, and an intuitive pulse. The piece draws heavily on the gypsy folk idioms Brahms encountered through Hungarian violinist Ede Reményi and he was very inspired by Dvořák to whom this came more... naturally as he was Czech.
Leading the dance is Hadelich, who won first prize at the International Violin Competition Indianapolis in 2006. He also earnee a Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo in 2016 for his recording of the Dutilleux Violin Concerto.
I have seen him live once and I was quite impressed by the details and accurate of his technique! From what I've read he really shaped it for his own body. He does not use a rigid mechanical shoulder rest à la Oistrakh or Stern. Instead, he uses a minimal cloth-covered sponge or pad tucked into his clothing, allowing for a flexible, natural posture and unmuted instrument resonance.
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