piano violin

[flontarna]

hello!

i'm looking for music for violin and piano. We have to play at a reception, but people will be listening. We don't know where to start looking. But the music can't be to difficult to listen at, some "easy-listening", but all suggestions for violin and piano are most welcome. Anyone suggestions?

Greetz
 

[franz_]

I know a violinist who does that, I will ask him. Try some Hungarian and bohemian stuff.

[leucippus]

In that case, here's some ideas for whatever they might be worth,…

The Swan is both easy to play and easy to listen to.  I think the performers can pretty much set a mood with this one depending on how they play it.  It can be melancholy or romantic depending on what mood you put into it when performing.

The Swan

The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba is a little more upbeat, not exactly "easy listening" but it might be fitting for setting a "Joyous Mood".   You could also introduce it as "The Arrival of the Queen of the Wedding" at a reception.   This one has some pretty wild-sounding piano playing.

Arrival of the Queen of Sheba

Of course Für Elise is always popular.   Here's a simple piano-violin arrangement:

Für Elise

[dnephi]

Could you take the art of the fugue and put two of the parts on piano and one on violin?  Just a thought.

[jehangircama]

i once heard a lovely violin - piano piece called Czardas but for the life of me i can't remember the composer. i heard it about 5 yrs ago in a concert and can still remember the melody, if you've heard of it then that might be worth trying. one slightly heavy but awesome work for violin - piano is the Franck sonata. that might be a bit too much for a reception, though.

[violinist]

The Czardas that comes to my mind is by Monti.  It can be a show stopper because of the drama in this piece... you'll know what I mean when you hear it or play it.

I can tell you that I personally hate playing at receptions, but it good that people will actually listen to you.

Play whatever you want   I think the weirdest thing I've played at a reception was Zigeunerwisen (don't make me spell it correctly).... by Sarasate - kinda like Czardas, but has a few more notes  - over generalization of course.

Good luck.

And yeah... the swan is an all time favorite!

And I must say the Vocalise - Rachmaninov!!!!! do that one too.

[ihatepop]

Improvise! Write your own piece!

If not, the Czardas is a good piece. I asked for its piano transcription before.

ihatepop

[arbisley]

Under the category easy listening, you could try the Ave maria of course.
Aye to the rachmaninov, although the piano part is a bit difficult, I suppose that doesn't matter in this case.
Otherwise try to find some mozart arrangments. It's always good music for "background playing" and also relatively easy to sight read. Then again to learn any mozart is really difficult if you want to do it 100% properly, but for receptions it's perfect (or garden parties).

[fnork]

You should definately check out some of Fritz Kreislers compositions and transcriptions, they are very much "café-music" and are often appreciated. Some good pieces would be:

Chanson arabe (transcription, rimsky-korsakoff)
Liebesleid
Liebesfreud
Menuet over a theme by Beethoven
Londonderry air (a beautiful song although I personally made a lot of changes in the piano part, didn't like Kreislers too much)

there's also a very beautiful piece called something with "lullaby" - maybe "romantic lullaby"? I don't remember, but it has a beautiful melody.

[bartolomeo_]

There's a huge repertoire.  Your violinist friend will probably be more familiar with it that most pianists.

There are a number of "Wedding music" compilations out there; take your pick.  I like "The Big Wedding Album" from alcove music publications which has a good variety of upbeat pieces of 2-4 minutes length from all eras through early 20th century.  Both parts are accessible ones that an accomplished high-school musician could learn with practice making these practical arrangements but ones that are not dumbed down to the point of being unmusical.

Beethoven and Mozart wrote books full of violin sonatas.  While some are better than others none are bad.  Modern editions are available from Peters, Henle, and Schirmer and you can get scans of the more popular ones in free, out-of-copyright versions at IMSLP: https://imslp.org/index.php?search=violin+sonata&go=Go  These are by and large more difficult than the Alcove arrangements I mentioned above.  I would pick a couple of slow movements.

There are three surviving violin sonatas by Brahms which though delightful require considerable skill to maintain ensemble.

Also a couple by Handel for free at mutopia: https://mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/piece-info.cgi?id=652

Lots of other stuff.  Hit the violin web sites since over half of the violin "solos" out there have piano accompaniment.  Sharmusic.com  Johsonstrings.com

That should be more than enough to get you started