Poll: Best violinist?

[franz_]

Nest to piano my interess goes to violinists. I can't play the violin but I love to hear it and see it. Are you guys interest in violin also, and who is in your eyes the best violinist? In the poll I named may be the 4 most famous and legendary.

[thalbergmad]

I know pretty much nothing about violinists, but I have heard all of the 4 you mention.

For me, it would have to be Heifetz.

Thal

PS Nigel Kennedy is a complete nerd.

[brewtality]

Perlman is no way in the class of the others. Milstein is my favourite, of those on the list Oistrakh.

[nicco]

I thought Paganini was the most famous\legendary

Some famous norwegian violinists that i have had the pleasure of hearing live are Arve Tellefsen and Arvid Engegård, who i liked very much watching\listening to. Maybe the most famous norwegian violinist ever is Ole Bull, a friend of Liszt and a mentor for Grieg.

[Waldszenen]

PS Nigel Kennedy is a complete nerd.

Agreed.

For me, Menuhin > Oistrakh > Heifetz > Perlman (though all four are amongst the best)

And I really like Milstein and Stern... and Kogan...

[mephisto]

Szigeti.

[prometheus]

Shankar.

But of these; Heifetz.

[Motrax]

Gil Shaham is awesomeeomemoeoe, as is Anne-Sophie Mutter. Gil Shaham signed my Beethoven violin sonatas (the sheetmusic), too. 

Heifetz is Heifetz. No more needs to be said.

[shasta]

You left out some of the greatest violinists in your poll.   

Milstein, Kreisler, and Stern.

From your list, I like Menuhin just a smidge over Oïstrakh.

[arensky]

Milstein is my favourite, of those on the list Oistrakh.

moi aussi 

[ahinton]

I know pretty much nothing about violinists, but I have heard all of the 4 you mention.

For me, it would have to be Heifetz.

Thal

PS Nigel Kennedy is a complete nerd.

If "pretty much nothing" nevertheless means that, for you, "it would have to be Heifetz" and that - well, whatever else it was that you said - then "pretty much nothing" seems to count for quite an understanding of violinists after all.

For Jagdish Mistry, it would also "have to be Heifetz"; now there's an opinion to respect! Mind you, of all the great performers of the past 100 years or so, Heifetz is probably one of those that I'd least like to have met.

If you really want to know something supremely irritating about Heifetz, I can tell you that he could reportedly play all the Beethoven violin sonatas from memory. The piano parts, that is.

Best,

Alistair

[Motrax]

Indeed, Heifetz was probably a better pianist than I'll ever be. 

- M

[pianistimo]

heifetz is my choice too.  mind you , he's about the only violinist i've really listened to though.  anne sophie-mutter recently played at the kimmel center.  i should have gone to the concert. 

speaking of speed and musicality - i heard a really wild marimbist about a year ago.  he still sticks in my mind.  it was awesome.  he played some concerto for marimba.  the sticks were going 100 miles an hour, and two at a time with both hands.  another piece was 'log cabin' something or other.

[ahinton]

Indeed, Heifetz was probably a better pianist than I'll ever be. 

- M

There are supposed to be some bootleg tapes around, taken from the masterclasses that he gave after he had more or less given up violin playing in public; how true this is I cannot say for certain, unfortunately, although I believe that a number of violinists who attended such masterclasses testified to the fact that he had done this. Artur Rubinstein also mentions in one of his racy autobiographical volumes a party at which several major musicians played instruments other than those for which they were known; this included Heifetz playing the piano (though there was no mention of what he played. If I am able to find out anything more, I'll write again.

Best,

Alistair

[kreso]

https://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=4749&name_role1=1&comp_id=1238&genre=70&bcorder=195&name_id=13842&name_role=2

I have this cd and here you can find Heifetz playing piano 4-hand together with Isidor Achron. If you want I will post that track!

[ahinton]

https://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=4749&name_role1=1&comp_id=1238&genre=70&bcorder=195&name_id=13842&name_role=2

I have this cd and here you can find Heifetz playing piano 4-hand together with Isidor Achron. If you want I will post that track!

Well done! Many thanks! Please do, if you would be so kind!

Best,

Alistair

[leucippus]

From your list I choose David Oistrakh as the best player technically speaking.  Although I prefer Yehudi Menuhin's musicality.  I never cared for the style of Jascha Heifetz myself.  Perlman is alright, but nothing special.  As others have mentioned there were so many more who were also great.  I enjoy Milstein also.

However having said all of that I vote for Hilary Hahn as the best violinist EVER.  I think she has all of the above mentioned greats beat and she's only in her mid-20's.

I have CD's of all the greats above playing the Bach partitas and sonatas for solo violin and I've listened to them all over and over again.  Hilary Hahn is by far the best player.  She has them all beat.  Every single last one of them.  Nobody plays better than Hahn.   She has the virtuosity and the musicality.  I'm sure there will be those who will object to my choice, but when it's all said and done I would much rather listen to her play than any of the others and that's the bottom line.  She has a phenomenal touch especially when playing multiple stops that none of the others have.  She also seems to be much more into the music while the others seem to be more into virtuosity than musicality.  Hahn is a natural born musician. 

[prometheus]

Didn't Heifetz play with some pianist a Beethoven piano&violin sonata where they decided to switch instruments for fun?

Not sure if it was him, who was the pianist and if this anekdote is accurate.

[alessandro]

I like Philip Hirschhorn

[Motrax]

I often find Hahn to be too cold (although I still love her playing in a general sense). Her Bach IS incredible, and I love her Barber concerto, but in other repertoire I find her playing to be too withdrawn. Hahn's Sibelius concerto, for example, leaves me quite untouched. But Mutter's Sibelius...!

I have a propensity toward more romantic playing, though, and I can certainly understand naming Hahn the best of the best. Vengerov is another one I like...

[brewtality]

Didn't Heifetz play with some pianist a Beethoven piano&violin sonata where they decided to switch instruments for fun?

Not sure if it was him, who was the pianist and if this anekdote is accurate.

the pianist was Harold Bauer, who had been a prodigy on the violin before switching instrument. The violinist might have been kriesler (not sure on this).

[leucippus]

I often find Hahn to be too cold (although I still love her playing in a general sense). Her Bach IS incredible, and I love her Barber concerto, but in other repertoire I find her playing to be too withdrawn. Hahn's Sibelius concerto, for example, leaves me quite untouched. But Mutter's Sibelius...!

I have a propensity toward more romantic playing, though, and I can certainly understand naming Hahn the best of the best. Vengerov is another one I like...

You may have a good point.  I do confess to being obsessed with Bach's violin solos.  I've actually been pretty much just focusing on those and so far Hahn has moved me like no other violinist for those pieces.  It's actually the finesse that Hahn brings to the music that I enjoy so much.  It's her delicate touch and slower speed of playing that draws me in. 

How she fairs with other music I can't really say as I haven't really heard her play much else.   She does seem to be quite highly skill technically speaking though.  So if she's not good in other repertoire is must be a matter of musical interpretation I would think.  Either that or she just didn't practice those pieces as much as she played Bach.

[Motrax]

Oh, Hahn's technique is off the charts, certainly. My first impression of Hahn came from the Barber concerto, and that remains one of my favorites of all time (both the recording and the piece). For a while, that's all I could base my opinion on, and so she was my favorite violinist (given that at the time, I knew very little about violin... even now I couldn't claim to know much about the instrument and its players). She's still at least in my top 5, which I guess I'll randomly name here, in no particular order:

Hilary Hahn
Jascha Heifetz
Anne-Sophie Mutter
Midori (for saving my life... long story  )
Gil Shaham
Shlomo Mintz
Nathan Milstien
Perlman... Vengerov... Oistrach...

I have too many favorites. Now, if we change the subject to cellists, my one and all-time favorite would definitely be Steven Isserlis. He even emailed me once! 

[franz_]

Midori (for saving my life... long story  )


I have too many favorites. Now, if we change the subject to cellists, my one and all-time favorite would definitely be Steven Isserlis. He even emailed me once! 

2 stories to tell us 

[kreso]

Well done! Many thanks! Please do, if you would be so kind!

Best,

Alistair

Here it is:

https://rapidshare.de/files/29104746/11_Padilla--_Valencia.wma.html

You have a link on akrivmusic for informations. Enjoy!

[Motrax]

Isserlis emailed me because I emailed him asking him where I could get sheet music for one of the pieces he plays on his encore CD, and also when he would come to this area so I could see him. He emailed me back within a day! So that's not really much of a story, but when I cryptically write that "Steven Isserlis even emailed me once!" it seems very exciting an unusual. 

[nomis]

the pianist was Harold Bauer, who had been a prodigy on the violin before switching instrument. The violinist might have been kriesler (not sure on this).

Yep, it was Kreisler.

For the mo, Kreisler is my fav. The tone, the tone!

[magio]

Leonidas Kavakos is the best of all-lol

[pianoplayjl]

I've only seen perman play, an dhis rendition of Vivaldi's four seasons was spectacular.

[sevencircles]

I often find Hahn to be too cold (although I still love her playing in a general sense). Her Bach IS incredible, and I love her Barber concerto, but in other repertoire I find her playing to be too withdrawn. Hahn's Sibelius concerto, for example, leaves me quite untouched. But Mutter's Sibelius...!

Mutter is one of the top 5 violinist ever but I wouldn´t call Hahn that good yet but her Schoenberg concerto is amazing. I heard her play it live and it was incredible.

Kavakos is the only player active today as far as I know that I think can be compared to Mutter.Perlman was up there too but not anymore.

None of them can touch Oistrakh an Heifetz in their prime though (I would consider them better then Menuhin though) . Too bad that neither Heifetz or Oistrakh had any interest in the modern repertoire like the Schoenberg concerto for instance.