On Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:23:32 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

>>> Doesn't sound very difficult. But Jesus, I'm twisting my hands into
>>> knots trying to follow all these crazy notes!
>> 
>> That's often the most difficult music.  Some of the most technically
>> challenging music I've played are pieces like the Barber Adagio for
>> Strings - its simplicity makes it very difficult because (a) it's so
>> recognisible and (b) its subtlety makes mistakes in performance
>> glaringly obvious.
> 
> Heh. I never really liked that thing very much...

The Barber?  Well, personal tastes aside, it's a very intense piece of 
music, particularly to perform.

In concert, we had to start it three or four times once.  Gorky Park in 
Moscow.  In the band shell (ie, outdoors).  We'd start, it'd start 
raining.  We'd stop, it'd stop raining.  This happened multiple times, 
and finally the winds section got up and went to the back and the entire 
string sections moved back during the last attempt to play it.

By the time we finished, there were only about 4 people left in the 
audience.

>>> Paganini was a violin virtuoso, so it probably wasn't that hard for
>>> HIM...
>> 
>> He did write them to showcase his own talents, but for most others
>> things like left-handed pizzicato thrown in with bowed elements (such
>> that it would be physically impossible to do the pizz with your right
>> hand even if you wanted to) or double-stop artificial harmonics
>> (single-stop artificial harmonics are a challenge on their own because
>> the interval is so precise).  The speed isn't the killer, it's the
>> precision and mix of elements that will drive you insane. ;-)
> 
> ...left-handed pizzicato?? O_O
> 
> OK, that's just frightening.
> 
> (Then again, I suck at playing the violin, so...)

Even good violinists have trouble with left-handed pizzicato.  But the 
Paganini (last movement of VC1) has runs that are like D, C#, B, A 
(played on the A string) in rapid succession; so you have to have the 
strength in your left hand to not only play the notes (not a big deal) 
and to pluck the string AS YOU REMOVE your fingers from the string.

And the coordination to do so while maintaining the rhythm of the music.

Jim

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