Your favorite classical tunes...

[Possibility of Being]

The soul cries with Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber's (1644-1704) Passacaglia.
Here are several versions of it. Choose the one you like best.

All. But if would have to choose just one, today, it's Elicia. Another day may bring a different choice.
I also like Biber's Requiem in F Minor a lot.

 

[aragorn]

I recently discovered a incredible violin player. Her name is Janine Jansen, born in the Netherlands. For long, my absolute favourite has been the late Russian violinist David Oistrakh but, somewhat to my surprise, I have to say that Jansen's playing tops even that. It's like she puts her soul behind every phrase, every note, and makes the music alive to a point that makes you cry. As a side note, many experts think that the all-time best violinist (besides perhaps Paganini who lived in during 1782 – 1840, so we can't hear his playing) was Jascha Heifetz; but if you aske me, despite his technical brilliance his playing lacks soul and emotion almost completely. In fact, I've read that he was incredibly brutal and unempathetic with his students.

For a first taste of how she plays here's a 1 min clip in which she plays the cadenza in Tchaikovsky's violin concerto:

Some longer videos, whole concertos:

Brahm's violin concerto i D, which is considered one of the most difficult concertos:

Tchaikovsky's violin concerto (my favourite):

Mendelssohn's violin concerto:

Bruch's violin concerto:

A documentary of Janine Jansen, which I found interesting and moving:
- YouTube

In the above documentary, one of Jansen's violin teachers, the famous and mythical violinist Philippe Hirschhorn describes her playing (as she was still his student) as "something I could never manage to do" (referring to her incredible musicianship and phrasing). Keep that in mind as you watch Philippe Hirschhorn perform one of the most difficult things you could play, a cadenza by Paganini:
- YouTube