Robins instrument demo, 18 May 2024
Hello Robins, and your families! This week, at Young Strings, we explored the sounds of bowed stringed instruments. You heard performances on a violin, viola, cello and double bass and we explained that we would like you to spend this week thinking about which instrument you would like to learn in September. Thanks for listening so well; we really enjoyed playing for you and can see that you are very excited about starting to learn a stringed instrument!
I hope it will be fun, and helpful, for you to spend some time exploring these instruments a bit further. Below are some suggestions of pieces you could listen to while you are making your choices.
Once you have done lots of listening and had a good chat about all the instruments, please email Bryony by 8 June to let her know your first and second choice instrument for September. Normally we can accommodate everyone on their first choice instrument but it's useful to have a second choice in case we don't have an even spread to make our orchestra!
Violin
1. Vivaldi 'Four Seasons', performed by Janine Jansen with Amsterdam Sinfonietta.
You can hear all the string instruments here because they are playing together as an orchestra but you will also hear the violin as a solo instrument.
2. This is a very famous violinist called Itzkah Perlman playing a piece from a film called Schindler's List. The music is by John Williams, who also wrote the music for Star Wars, ET, Jurassic Park, many Harry Potter films and any more fantastic films. The music from Schindler's List is slow and gentle because there are some very sad moments in the film and it is also extremely beautiful.
3. Aleksey Igudesman, 'Funk the String'.
4. Here is a group called Blazin' Fiddles playing some traditional jigs.
5. Gael and his family shared this video with me this week. It is one of their favourite Mexican bands, featuring a very inspiring young violinist!
Viola
1. J.S. Bach Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, 3rd movement (played on viola by Sifie Cheng)
2. Steffen Drabek, jazz viola.
3. Beautiful viola playing by young violist Steven Baloue in Vieuxtemps’ Cappriccio in C Minor:
4. Gorgeous arrangement of Amazing Grace performed by violists from the Nashville Symphony Orchestra:
Cello
1. Elgar Cello Concerto played by Sheku Kaneh-Mason and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
2. Some jazz cello...
3. This is a famous piece by Bach - in fact, possibly the first piece written for the cello as we know it today. Until around this time, the cello didn't always have the same strings and wasn't a standard size, so the sound could be very different!
4. Enjoy hearing the cello playing in its lowest to highest registers here. It's so expressive! This is 'Silent Woods' by Dvorak.
3. This is a really fun piece called 'Julie-o'
Double Bass
1. 'The Elephant' from Carnival of the Animals...
2. And some very funky jazz from Adam Ben Ezra...
3. Young Person’s Guide to the orchestra. Double Bass Variation. BBC Symphony Orchestra.
4. The amazing Bozo Paradzik and students playing the Pink Panther
5. Rinat Imbragimov, playing the Bottesini Bass Concerto no2. Showing that basses can play high and fast too!