Classical Mandolin solo Videos on YouTube

[Acquavella]

Hi Jim,

Look at Alex's message right below mine. He included a link to her videos. That video was removed and reloaded after I posted the message. I was going to fix the link but the messageboard won't let me edit messages anymore. Try Alex's link. There are some good videos of Caterina on Youtube. Cheers.

[Acquavella]

deleted...

[kjell]

This has been mentioned once or twice on the cafe, but I stumbled onto it the other night and was wowed. Don't think it's been in this thread yet, so here goes. Calace - Danza dei Nani - Ralf Leenen & Elisa Franco.

[vkioulaphides]

Hello, Kjell.

Nice to "meet" you here. Indeed, Ralf ranks high on "Wow Factor". I have watched this, and the other clips he has on his YouTube channel, and am always wowed by his mastery, both of the mandolin itself and the repertoire he performs.

-----

This morning, I received notice of this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sybiyy5-84

by yet another brilliant Israeli mandolinist. Man, those guys are leaving the rest of the world in the dust... SO much talent, intense cultivation of the art of the mandolin, and (presumably) public interest and support! I wish Yaki and his compatriots all the success they deserve.

Cheers,

Victor

[Alex Timmerman]

Hi all,

Here is a link to a very nice and musical performance by Dorina Frati on mandolin of the 1st movement and a bit of the opening of the slow 2nd movement of the Mandolin Concerto in Sol maggiore per mandolino, archi e basso continuo by DOMENICO GAUDIOSO.

Click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlE53ouKR2Q

Enjoy!

Alex

[vkioulaphides]

LOVELY! I not only enjoyed Ms. Frati's fine playing (of course), but also the wonderful sonority and vigor of the accompanying ensemble. An excellent performance, and one that dispels any notion that bowed and plucked strings "don't go together". Combined tastefully, they SURE do! The acoustics of the space did their own "magic", too...

Cheers,

Victor

[angelouself]

Actually I played on that mandolin last month. By watching the video one wouldn't guess how hard it is to "play" it. It's a very old Vinaccia mandolin, and it's quite "sensitive"... you really have to put your finger on the fret in a very precise way, otherwise it won't sound very well. It really keeps you on your toes while performing but I think it doesn't let you "go free".

[vkioulaphides]

Thank you for answering my "Unasked Question", Fabio. Vinaccia!

Please convey to your teacher the boundless admiration of all of us at the Cafe-- I trust that I speak for all when I wholeheartedly applaud this performance.

Cheers,

Victor

[billkilpatrick]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXOExUACTPs

... title of the piece translates as "tassels of the sun." when i closed my eyes to listen, what i heard was schizophrenia - the sort of jabbering a bag-lady in the subway might make. full compliments to the musician - the command of the instrument needed to play this stuff is truly impressive.

[Bruce Clausen]

Thank you for that, Bill. Player is Dimitris Marinos, and it is terrific playing, and nice video production too.

BC

[Neil Gladd]

Is Bach on a Cuatro close enough?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W6k1E7eFQE

[billkilpatrick]

here's another dimitri marinos piece - beethoven:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMNHX0081sk

... im' off to the dictionary to find out what a "music analect" is ...

[K. WONG]

I am not sure if someone has pointed this out before or not, I came across a video in you tube in which Duilio Galfetti plays Bach with an electric mandolin. For those who enjoy his performance of Vivalid's mandolin Concerto with Il Giardino Armonico should find the video very interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k18X6FY75F4

[Alex Timmerman]

Hi all,

Since we all love the music of Johann Sebastian Bach I thought it would be nice to hear the Fugue (from the Sonata in g-minor - BWV 1001) in the performance of Sebastiaan de Grebber.

This Fugue is the 2nd movement of Bach's Sonata in g minor BWV 1001 for solo violin. The other three movements being: 1) Adagio, 3) Siciliana and 4) Presto.
Unfortunately Johann Sebastian Bach did not compose any works for mandolin. In fact, the mandolin had not yet developed into the modern metal strung and plectrum-played instrument tuned in fifths as we know it today.
Perhaps its forerunner, the mandolino, strung with double gut strings (regarded today as the ancestor of the mandolin family), could have been familiar to Bach, as it was to his contemporaries and colleagues like Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759), Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) and Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783). Besides the famous concertos for the gut-strung Mandolino by Vivaldi and Hasse, both Händel and Vivaldi composed arias in which the mandolino was given the role of accompaniment.

As far as is known today, Bach did not write music for high-pitched plucked instruments, but since his compositions, especially his Suites, Sonatas and Partitas for solo instruments belong to the most beautiful music of the Baroque period, and knowing that Bach himself transcribed parts of these violin works for other instruments (for instance the Fugue from the first violin Sonata for organ [BWV 539] and for lute [BWV 1000]), the Fugue from the 1st Sonata was selected for this solo mandolin video recording. The mandolin Sebastiaan used here is an Embergher concert mandolin No. 5bis.




To hear Bach's complete Sonata as well as music for solo mandolin by G.Ph. Telemann (1681-1767), R. Calace (1863-1934), G. Pettine (1874-1966), S. Ranieri (1882-1956), N. Paganini (1782-1840), J. Craton (1953- ) and V. Kioulaphides (b. 1961) performed by Sebastiaan de Grebber, please visit de Grebber's website where you can, if you like the music mentioned above, find out how to purchase the FANTASIA ROMANTICA CD, and where you will be informed about Sebastiaan's future concerts etc.

Click here: http://www.degrebber-mandolin.com

or visit MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/themandolinist


Enjoy and best greetings,

Alex

[Arto]

Thanks Alex, for posting this. Great music and great player! I have Sebastiaan´s CD and have listened to this piece many times, but it´s great to see this on video. One of my favourite parts in all of Sonatas & Partitas...

[Alex Timmerman]

Indeed, The Fugue is one of my favorites too!

Thanks Arto for your reply; it is really appreciated.


Best regards,

Alex

[John Craton]

As usual, Alex, Sebastiaan does a marvellous job interpreting this wonderful piece by Bach. Sebastiaan makes it sound far, far better on mandolin than I ever did on violin Please pass along my congratulations.

[Alex Timmerman]

Hello John,

Yes, he is really one of a kind.

I will of course inform him.


Thanks and we'll stay in contact,

Alex

[vkioulaphides]

FANTASTIC!!!

Even the setting is ideal, with the reverberant resonance of the hallway actually enhancing the voice-leading of this monumental score. In my somewhat biased opinion the piece often sounds harsh under the bow-stroke, while the sustain of the violin, under the ENORMOUS technical strain of this piece, often leads to unintentional staccato; on the mandolin, au contraire, the inner voices of the score acquire a truly lovely continuity, and the chordal progressions strike my ear as more cogent, more coherent, better interwoven— which is, of course, a fundamental requirement and compositional intention behind this piece.

None of this, of course, would have been even remotely possible without three "heroes": Sebastiaan, who plays the mandolin like NOBODY else in the whole, wide world; Alex, who taught the young virtuoso with a devotion, affection, and sense of responsibility that falls nothing short of the term "fatherly"; and Luigi Embergher, who created a vehicle that can take the hands, the mind, and the heart all the way up a Stairway to Heaven, as it were.

On a personal note, having left behind the gravitas of Bach's St. John Passion with Easter-time's performances, I am now immersed in the levitas of Rossini's scintillating L'Italiana in Algeri—#no complaint, of course, but just a statement of fact. I naturally have on my mind and in my "inner ear" whatever piece I am currently performing. This wonderful performance reminded me once again what privilege and good fortune it is to have ANYthing by Bach. Many thanks for posting this video.

Cheers,

Victor

[Plamen Ivanov]

Great performance!!! Thank you for posting this video, Alex!!!

I was introduced to this well-known piece when i was twelve yo by a member of our big orchestra, who played the mandolin there, but was actually a professional violin player. I remember he had difficulties to get used to the tremolo and to develop this specific technic, but he was amazing in performing Bach's Fuga. So, the first interpretation that i heard in my life of this work was a mandolin interpretation. After that i listened to a guitar version of it and much later the violin one.

Greetings to Holland and all mandolin devoted people there!
Plamen

[Alex Timmerman]

Hello Plamen,

Good to hear from you and thanks for your reply! I will pass on your greetings of course!


Best,

Alex.

[Alex Timmerman]

Hello Victor,

Thanks for the nice words! Indeed it is something very special if all comes together. And very rewarding also, especially when that what a teacher stands for and drives him (or her) is prolonged by one of his students. That is the best thing that can happen.

And about talent... Well, that is everywhere around us. We only have to see it and let it blossom.

Here is jet another promising youngster of my mandolin class; Pijke Dijksterhuis (6 years old) playing 'Sascha', a Russian Traditional.



Many thanks,

Alex.

PS. Think about what if Bach would only have had one mandolino player around him...; an original Suite for unaccompanied Mandolino . Or perhaps a Concerto for Mandolin and Orchestra if Mozart had lived longer... . Well, it is a good thing we may play everything we want on mandolin and that we are fortunate to have some wonderful composers today for our beautiful little instrument. Cheers !

[vkioulaphides]

Think about what if Bach would only have had one mandolino player around him...; an original Suite for unaccompanied Mandolino...

Well... as we all know (so far), that didn't quite happen. To "rectify" this great misfortune, however, a present-day, great admirer of the Great J.S. composed his own Suite for Ali last year, at the request of our dear and illustrious Alison Stephens. No Bach, for sure, but as sincerely neoclassical as I know how to write. Ali will premiere this work at the Dartington Festival next August, after which time it will (probably) be published, and available to the public.

Thus the great continuum that is "classical" music (for lack of a better term) lives on and flourishes. There is no "end date" on artistic creation, or to culture in general; they run as long as humans live and work.

Cheers,

Victor

[vkioulaphides]

VERY sweet video, with Pijke and yourself, Alex. He is a fortunate hatchling who is under your wing, my friend!

Cheers,

Victor

[billkilpatrick]

fawzia ... lettin' 'er rip: