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Old 08-01-2007, 12:48 PM
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Jeff Moote Jeff Moote is offline
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Default Solo repertoire (Concertos, Sonatas and more)

What has everyone played? What's your favourite? I'm thinking we'll leave orchestral solos out (Mahler, Pulcinella, etc.) perhaps for another thread.


I'm just beginning my journey into the solo rep as I'm finally going to have a teacher again (after about 6 months without). I'm starting with the usual baroque sonatas (Marcello, Vivaldi, Eccles) and have also committed myself to playing the Vanhal for a Concerto Competition (with the orchestra I play in) to be held in January. If that sounds ambitious, it is! I think I'm crazy, but the desire not to embarrass myself at the competition should be good incentive to practice
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Old 08-01-2007, 07:02 PM
Charles Federle Charles Federle is offline
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The Vanhal is a great piece and it is hard, but have fun with it and I wish you all the best luck. It is one of our best classical concertos. If you are just getting into solo work I suggest the Scarlatti Sonatas over the Marcello and Vivaldi. Abit easier to get into and still good music.

Instead of a list of what I have played I will just say that the Bruch Kol Nidre is one of my favorite times when playing with an orchestra, and the Misek Sonata in e minor ( I think that is the right key) is one of my all time favorite pieces to perform. Even if I can barely make it through.
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Old 08-01-2007, 08:50 PM
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Thanks for the suggestions. I've made two big orders of music from Lemur in the last couple weeks, but if I'm in a local shop or placing another order I'll pick up the Scarlatti sonatas and perhaps the 3 by Misek too (for playing later when I'm ready for them). On the "difficulty scale" used in the Lemur catalogue, the Marcello and Vivaldi sonatas are 3.0-4.0, the Vanhal at 6.0 and the Misek E minor 8.8. His first sonata isn't quite as bad, and they give it a 6.5.

As for the Vanhal, my biggest challenge initially is editing the parts. I want to read it at pitch in Dmaj so I had to buy both the Dmaj and Emaj editions as there is no orchestral tuning version. So I'll use the solo part from Emaj (reading D) and the piano part from Dmaj. The problem is that the Dmaj edition (reading C) is actually much better edited and includes the facsimile. The part I want to play from has changed phrasing, left out some ornaments, and very liberally taken passages down an octave (though from looking at the facsimile, Vanhal wrote many parts that nobody plays at pitch). I figure I'll try it all as the editor has written it, but make notes where I may wish to take things up an octave or two if I'm capable.
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Old 08-01-2007, 10:01 PM
Charles Federle Charles Federle is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Moote View Post
On the "difficulty scale" used in the Lemur catalogue, the Marcello and Vivaldi sonatas are 3.0-4.0, the Vanhal at 6.0 and the Misek E minor 8.8. His first concerto isn't quite as bad, and they give it a 6.5.
There is a Misek concerto ?

As for the difficulty rating... well I am not sure I personally agree with them. I put the Vanhal and most of those cello sonatas as a bit harder, but that might just be me personally.

Something to remember when dealing with our older concertos though is that they really are transcriptions almost. They were for a bass tuned much differently then what we use today (Viennese tuning). To get an idea of how different things were search youtube and you will find someone playing the Vanhal there in Viennese tuning. With that said the part written in D might be more authentic. I have never done much study with the manuscript, but you should feel free to add a few ornaments or change octaves if you feel it works better musically.
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Old 08-01-2007, 10:23 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles Federle View Post
There is a Misek concerto ?
Mental slip - I meant sonata and have corrected the above. There's three sonatas I can find (Op. 5, 6, 7) from Misek.

Quote:
Something to remember when dealing with our older concertos though is that they really are transcriptions almost. They were for a bass tuned much differently then what we use today (Viennese tuning). To get an idea of how different things were search youtube and you will find someone playing the Vanhal there in Viennese tuning. With that said the part written in D might be more authentic. I have never done much study with the manuscript, but you should feel free to add a few ornaments or change octaves if you feel it works better musically.
Yes, I'm aware it was written for Viennese tuning (A-D-F#-A) though it was orchestrated for a scordatura tuning of a semitone making the original concert key Eb though the bass read in D). I've seen the clip on YouTube and it certainly does look a lot easier in some passages (such as Dmaj arpeggios - just use the octave harmonic of the top 3 strings!). I'll be playing it tuned in fifths (C-G-D-A) so I have the advantage in some passages of the harmonics of the top two strings, but double stopping all the seconds and thirds in the cadenza could be annoying.

I am approaching it much like a transcription and will keep an eye to the manuscript as well. I'll learn my way around the notes according to the editors version, and like you said do any octave transposition or additional ornaments as I feel appropriate with the manuscript as a guideline. What is it with composers and terrible musical penmanship anyway?

Thanks again for the input!
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Last edited by Jeff Moote; 08-01-2007 at 11:47 PM.
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Old 08-02-2007, 06:00 PM
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Default Vanhal facsimile?

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Originally Posted by Jeff Moote View Post
....The problem is that the Dmaj edition (reading C) is actually much better edited and includes the facsimile...
I really like the Vanhal - my favorite classical period concerto. Which edition is it that has the facsimile? I'd really like to see that. I've played one written in D major for the bass (Hofmeister I think) and I'm very very suspicious of the editing.
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Old 08-02-2007, 07:32 PM
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Originally Posted by Brian Roessler View Post
I really like the Vanhal - my favorite classical period concerto. Which edition is it that has the facsimile? I'd really like to see that. I've played one written in D major for the bass (Hofmeister I think) and I'm very very suspicious of the editing.
Both of mine are published by Hofmeister but the editors are different. The piano reductions are quite different too, aside from the key change, but this doesn't really matter much if your end goal is to play it with an orchestra since they're both reductions.

The one that sounds in D with solo tuning (bass part in C) is the one that included the facsimile (which is in D), revealing that both versions have suspect editing but the one you have completely leaves some ornament notes out. I've gone through and fixed it all, including lots of 8va (whole pages as well as isolated passages) but we'll see if I can actually play all of them in the upper octave (lots of work at the end of the fingerboard in TP). If you want to PM me your email address, I'll try to scan the facsimile this weekend and will send it to you. From there you can make your own decisions about editing your part.
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Last edited by Jeff Moote; 08-02-2007 at 09:05 PM.
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Old 08-09-2007, 08:58 PM
stan haskins stan haskins is offline
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Default Concertos

I like playing the Koussevitsky the most, probably only because I put so much work into it - I recently backpedalled and started checking out the Cappuzi (sp?)
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