Classical Mandolin solo Videos on YouTube

[Alex Timmerman]

Hi Buzz,

I agree completely with what is said above; a very nice and exciting third movement! Would love to hear the other movements and buy the music from you.

Congrats and thanks for making us aware of the video!

Alex.

[mandobuzz]

Thanks for your kind words everyone. I am glad it resonates with people. I'll put up the 4th movement soon. I wasn't happy with aspects of the 1st and 2nd movements--either my playing, the audio quality, or audience noise, so I won't put those up. However, for those interested the entire piece is on my myspace music page.

-Buzz

[Woody Turner]

Jamie suggested that I repost this in the classical forum. I know that some consider Telemann as middlebrow, but he wrote some delightfully ingenious pieces. This round--or canon, if you will--works with three instruments as well.

[John Goodin]

I also really like Buzz's (Buzz' ?) piece and his performance. Thanks to Woody (David?) for posting Orrin Star and David Fry's (Woody's?) take on Telemann's canonic hit. This piece has worked nicely for me with mandolin and violin in the past also and is certainly fun to play.

What I enjoy the most in both videos is the sound of A model, flat-backed mandolins. We get to here a lot of beautiful bowlback sounds here but I still love the warmth of these flatbacks. There are many wonderful sounds in the mandolin universe!

John G.

[vkioulaphides]

I know that some consider Telemann as middlebrow, but he wrote some delightfully ingenious pieces.

For some context: in terms of "peer review" criticism, the continuous denigration of Telemann's compositional legacy around the middle of the past century (i.e. before the Early Music movement) is a by-product of the writings of Arnold Schoenberg, who often used the surname as synonym for "hack". In light of respective "air time", however, I leave it for others to draw their own conclusions.

I do not wish to engage in a polemic on aesthetics; it's a lovely, sunny Saturday morning, and the LAST thing I'd like to spend (Read: "waste") it on is arguing about the ever-hopeless de gustibus. All I am saying is that looking down on Telemann is, well... passe. The Master of Magdeburg rocks again!

Thanks for posting these!

Cheers,

Victor

[Woody Turner]

Let me correct myself: Jamie suggested that the original poster repost the Telemann video. I'd also like to acknowledge Orrin's generosity in allowing one of his green students to sit in with him on this one. He may want to chime in here about the comments above. As for me, I'm happy to learn about others' experience in voicing this canon, such as John G's. And thanks for providing a little historical backdrop, Victor. I hadn't known about Schoenberg's mischief.

BTW, speaking of baroque pieces, I thought your rendition of the Goldberg above was exceptionally crisp and engaging, Mandobuzz.

[John Goodin]

Thanks to David's avatar, and his comments over on CoMando, I now realize that his mandola isn't exactly flat-backed. So I should alter my earlier comment to say something like "non-bowlback, non-F style" mandolins. In any event he and Orrin's performance sounds great.

John G.

[K. WONG]

Czardas by a Taiwan mandolinist. I hope that you enjoy it.
http://www.youtube.com/user/dongyunc.../4/PuSbi2LxkJY

[K. WONG]

Dear All
Finally, I can see Duilio Galfetti and Il Giardino Armonico playing Vivaldi in you tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ-3d...eature=related

[Alex Timmerman]

Thanks K. Wong for making us aware of these videos.

Nice playing by this Korean duo. It is wonderful to see the mandolin played so well all over de globe.

I enjoyed especially the Vivaldi Mandolin Concerto. Really performed nicely and with great taste by Duilio Galfetti and Il Giardino Armonico.


Best,

Alex

[mandobuzz]

Here is the 4th movement of my Suite for Mandolin.

-Buzz

[vkioulaphides]

I GREATLY enjoyed the Galfetti/Giardino video-- the bizarre, quasi-aluminum-wrapped staging notwithstanding (What the heck WAS that about?)

Uhm... I dare not ask but, well, between friends: and what sort of mandolin-thing was he playing? It sounded wonderful!

The instrumentation was the same mix of flashy and mad as the staging: violins playing pizzicato faster than possible, basses divisi, one bowed, one plucked... there was a Fellini-esque element to the whole affair...

Cheers,

Victor

[Arto]

I, too, was so happy seeing Duilio Galfetti in YouTube! Great music! Thanks to K.Wong. Galfetti was to give a lecture about Vivaldi´s mandolin music in Trossingen in 2004, but unfortunately he was not able to come there. It would have been very interesting to hear him about that subject.

I´m not able to comment on Victor on Giardino Armonico, but I just love the group! "Concerti per Liuto e Mandolino" (Teldec, Das Alte Werk series) is one of my favourites.

I thought Vivaldi´s mandolin music was probably originally finger-picked? Am I wrong here, or is there any consensus about this?

Arto

[Alex Timmerman]

Hello Arto and Victor,


Duilio Galfetti, Victor, is playing a Mandolino. A new instrument that was made by Federico Gabrielli after an example made by Antonio Monzino from Milano. This was made in the last (if I remember well) quarter of the 18th Century and can be found in the Scala in Milan today.

The Mandolino is the earliest mandolin type of all mandolin types. This particular Mandolino Maestro Galfetti is playing is strung with six double strungs. The highest four (sometimes even five) are made of plain schaep gut while each string of the two lowest string pairs are made of silk with a silver metal winding. In the old days the lowest trings could also be fabricated of gut with a winding of metal. And there were other ways too that have come to light in the past decennia. Such for instance as a thin metal string woven with gut-lines to get the right strenght for the tone hight(s) of the open lowest strings.
For reasons of convenience however performers on the Mandolino usually use for the lowest string pairs the silk with a silver metal winding.

And Arto, you are right with your idea that the Vivaldi Mandolino Concerti should be played fingerstyle. There is evidence enough for the Mandolino to be played with the right hand thumb and fingers up to well in the 2nd half of the 18th Century. But of course at a certain moment - some where around 1750 - both ways (playing the Mandolino with the RH fingers and playing it with a quill) were practised. Only the preference (as learned from tutors like Fouchetti etc.) was to play the gut-strung Mandolino with a wooden cherry tree quill and the metal-strung Mandolino Napolitano with a quill of a birds feather.
So even at that time - much later(!) than Antonio Vivaldi composed is beautiful Concertos for Mandolino - the preference of sound and fashion of the Italians was to play the gut-strung Mandolinos with a wooden quill.

As we look at the Giardino Armonico Vivaldi video we see that Duilio Galfetti uses a quill, or better, a plectrum kind. From what I can make of it, it does not look like a wouden quill (or a birds feather - as the German school players play the Mandolino so Historically mistaken with) but much more like a triangle tortoise-like plectrum...
Indeed a discussion could be started here. Italians, or maybe I should say people, nowadays don't care much for diferences in sound of the old Mandolin types anymore.
Something for purists, I am sure and people who really care for the History of our instrument.

But as I already said here, it is a lovely video and Duilio Galfetti's performance as the soloist on the Mandolino is really superb!


Best,

Alex.

PS. For those who like to see the instrument played finger-style, I can point you to the two videos on YouTube where I play the Alemanda and Fuga by Checcerini for Mandolino in that manner. The direct link to my corner at YouTube is: http://www.youtube.com/user/OrchestradiMandolini

[K. WONG]

If my memory serves me right, Paul O'dette used finger instead of plectrum in his CD on Vivaldi Mandolin Concerto.

[Eugene]

If my memory serves me right, Paul O'dette used finger instead of plectrum in his CD on Vivaldi Mandolin Concerto.

Paul O'Dette's recording is the proverbial odd duck. He played the Vivaldi mandolin works on a 6-course mandolino/mandola using a plectrum. At that time, he argued the "leuto" works were intended for that same instrument. O'Dette recorded Vivaldi's leuto works on mandolino using his fingers. He has since recanted and plays the leuto works on archlute.

Galfetti's Vivaldi recording is still my favorite, in spite of quill use.

[Eugene]

PS: O'Dette's plectrum of choice, last I saw him play such an instrument, was a Jim Dunlop nylon guitar pick.

[John Goodin]

Ah, but what shape, color and thickness was the Dunlop?

I understand that Vivaldi himself endorses Blue Chip picks!

John G.

[margora]

"PS: O'Dette's plectrum of choice, last I saw him play such an instrument, was a Jim Dunlop nylon guitar pick."

The last time I saw Paul play such an instrument, which was a few weeks ago in Boston, he played it using right hand fingers. Vivaldi, with the Boston Early Music Festival band. Absolutely superb.

[Eugene]

The last time I saw Paul play such an instrument, which was a few weeks ago in Boston, he played it using right hand fingers. Vivaldi, with the Boston Early Music Festival band. Absolutely superb.

I would have paid the price of admission for that! I believe O'Dette recorded the E-minor Arrigoni sonata punteado too. I only use fingers on my own; I just can't get the feel for quill or plectrum on all gut or gut-like synthetic.

[fluxman]

Here's me playing Vivaldi's Concerto for 2 Mandolins in G Major - 2nd movement.

I'm glad i discovered this piece; it really is a gem!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q0c1iuLRUw

[David Cottingham]

Very nice!

[MLT]

Well done! I enjoy your video's very much.

[K. WONG]

I came across a Korean playing Calace Prelude 1 in you tube. What is interesting is that, he is using an Embergher 6 built by Yoshihiko Takusari in Japan. As many in the mandolin cafe may know, Mr Takusari is the one who inherited Pecoraro's tools, moulds and workbench.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X5ASKk5s8U
If anyone here is interested in the mandolin built by Mr Takusari, her is his site:
http://guidex.jp/guidex_shops/mandolin/info.html

[Jim Garber]

Hah! I put the URL in Google translate and my favorite translation from the Japanese is:

He With the death of his Pasukuarepekoraro Enberugamandorin has been produced for many years in Rome, Italy, from the family took over the kit to begin the production of Enberugamandorin.

I like "Pasukuarepekoraro" and "Enberugamandorin".