# Your favourite solo violin works?



## shangoyal

Any works with solo violin you like a lot? I like Bach's solo violin partitas and sonatas but I am looking for something more modern. I am open to suggestions from all eras anyway. Thanks!!


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## Itullian

Eugene Ysaye's solo violin sonatas. Incredible music.
Also Paganini's Caprices.


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## hpowders

Bach's Third Unaccompanied Violin Sonata, the Fuga movement as played by Nathan Milstein.


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## Mandryka

shangoyal said:


> Any works with solo violin you like a lot? I like Bach's solo violin partitas and sonatas but I am looking for something more modern. I am open to suggestions from all eras anyway. Thanks!!


Bartok's sonata
Kurtag's Kafka Fragments (just listen to the violin)

I wonder if anyone likes Cage's Freeman etudes. If so I hope they'll say something to help me get into them (I like the Etudes Australes a lot.)


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## ptr

Swedish Composer Hilding Rosenberg wrote three sonata's for violin solo, only available on that hyped modern format Vinyl... I've told about Claude Loyola Allgèn previously, he wrote a solo sonata that run for about 2 hours, my friend Joar Skorpen recorded it live and released it on NoSag Records! I like them quite a lot... The Swedish Rokoko composer Johan Helmish Roman wrote "Sei Assaggi à Violino solo" that are quite fun,,, Allan Pettersson some works for two violins, but that don't count I guess?

Others who interesting wrote works for solo violin; Eduard Tubin, Grazyna Bacewicz, and I love Bent Sørensen's "The Lady of Shalott"!

/ptr


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## Mahlerian

Not quite the same, but the violin part of Schoenberg's _Phantasy_ for violin and piano was supposedly written first and the piano part added afterwards (though it was always intended to be there).


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## joen_cph

My favourites are:

- Bach´s Sonatas & Partitas / Poulet / arion 
- Reger´s Sonatas / Mathé / dorian
- Ysaye´s Solo sonatas

Ysaye´s would be the most "modern" among these .

Haven´t heard Ernst Bloch´s Suites for Solo Violin.


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## SixFootScowl

Love this violin part:


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## Guest

In addition to the previously mentioned Bach, Ysaye, and Bartok Sonatas, I like Reger's Sonatas, Schnittke's A Paganini, and Roger Sessions' Sonata for Solo Violin. Has anyone heard the nearly three-hour Solo Sonata by Claude Loyola Allgen? Can't say that it's a favorite, but it's quite an intense experience!


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## elgar's ghost

Hindemith for me. He wrote three, and I'm especially fond of the last two from 1924 which formed part of his op. 31 set of chamber works. Reger is next on my list - I think he wrote a total of 11 sonatas (plus some other pieces) but I've only got one of them on disc so far. Prokofiev's late solo sonata is one that has perpetually slipped through my net so I may have to rectify that as well.


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## OlivierM

I second Ysaÿe, and would add Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen (interpreted by Vadim Repin), which is quite a performance.

Ok, it's not completely solo, but wow anyway.
Couldn't find the Repin's one on youtube, so here is Perlman's:






Edit: By the way, Repin's version is a duo, piano & violin


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## Guest

Boulez's Anthemes is for solo violin, but Anthemes II with the added electronics is even better


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## Blancrocher

John Zorn - Goetia


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## Hassid

Russian-Canadian Sophie Eckhardt-Gramatté had several very interesting works for solo violin.Also Enescu. A lovely piece is Honnegger's solo sonata. And Paul Ben-Haim's. Sadistic Emile Sauret (yes, that one of the awful cadenza) had several unplayed pieces and caprices for solo.


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## MoonlightSonata

Tartini, Devil's Trill sonata.
So utterly amazing. I especially love the third movement.


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## Itullian

Bazzini's Le Ronde de Lutins, Dance of the Goblins.


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## DiesIraeCX

I sure wish that I knew enough Solo Violin works to have a truly informed favorite, but I'll say that I love Beethoven's two _Romances __for Violin_:

Romance #1 in G Major, Op.40 (c.1802) and Romance #2 in F Major, Op. 50 (c.1798).


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## elgar's ghost

I should give honorary mention to Berio's Sequenza VIII but as I often prefer to listen to Sequenzas either in its entirety or in large portions I don't tend to excise this one piece from the rest, even though they were all written at different times.


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## Wolfie

Bach's Partita No. 2


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## Celiac Artery

Wolfie said:


> Bach's Partita No. 2


Mine as well, especially the Chaconne.


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## satoru

I think pieces by Biber (1644-1704) should be mentioned here.

An example:
Passacaglia for Unaccompanied Violin

PS. Biber established the foundation of violin techniques which lead to Bach's solo partitas and sonatas. Independent of the historical considerations, his music stands high and shines bright by its own right in my personal opinion.


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## Giordano

satoru said:


> I think pieces by Biber (1644-1704) should be mentioned here.
> 
> An example:
> Passacaglia for Unaccompanied Violin
> 
> PS. ... his music stands high and shines bright by its own right ....


Agreed! I posted the same link yesterday in another thread. 
Biber's violin sonatas (not solo) are wonderful, too.


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## Haydn man

Celiac Artery said:


> Mine as well, especially the Chaconne.


I will happily go with this also


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## GKC

Hands down Bach Partitas and Sonatas. The Chaconne from Partita no. 2 is a world in and of itself.

Have Milstein, Grumiaux and Sitkovetsky on Lp and Fischer, St. John and Sitkovetsky on CD. I think Grumiaux is my favorite.

Just thought of something: If you call Shostakovich's op. 87 the 20th century equivalent of Bach's WTC, what, if anything, is the 20th cent. equivalent of Bach's Partitas and Sonatas for solo violin ?

GKC


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## Chronochromie

DiesIraeVIX said:


> I sure wish that I knew enough Solo Violin works to have a truly informed favorite, but I'll say that I love Beethoven's two _Romances __for Violin_:
> 
> Romance #1 in G Major, Op.40 (c.1802) and Romance #2 in F Major, Op. 50 (c.1798).


Aren't they for violin and orchestra though?


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## hpowders

Bach Unaccompanied Partita #2 and Sonata #3, especially as recorded by Nathan Milstein.


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## hpowders

To the above, I must add the Paganini Caprices, though taken in small doses. Too much dazzling pyrotechnics can give me a migraine!


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## Buddha

Thomas Zehetmair's recording of Ysaÿe's Sonates Pour Violon Solo (ECM, 2003) is pretty swell.


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## Vaneyes

shangoyal said:


> Any works with solo violin you like a lot? I like Bach's solo violin partitas and sonatas but *I am looking for something more modern.* I am open to suggestions from all eras anyway. Thanks!!


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## The nose

Berio's Sequenza VIII it's for violin solo.


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## soundoftritones

Haha, I'm with you on this one - my favourite solo violin pieces are also Bach partitas *^^* Especially his chaconnes. They're what first lured me into the world of violin solo songs - that, and Heifetz.


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## KenOC

soundoftritones said:


> Haha, I'm with you on this one - my favourite solo violin pieces are also Bach partitas *^^* Especially his chaconnes. They're what first lured me into the world of violin solo songs - that, and Heifetz.


He wrote more than one chaconne?


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## cbrian

Talking about Chaconnes, I really like Vitali's Chaconne. It doesn't sound that Baroque to me though...


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## tortkis

GKC said:


> Just thought of something: If you call Shostakovich's op. 87 the 20th century equivalent of Bach's WTC, what, if anything, is the 20th cent. equivalent of Bach's Partitas and Sonatas for solo violin ?


John Cage's Freeman Etudes, although the form is different, and it is my favorite modern solo violin work.


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## aajj

Bartok
Bach - Partita No. 2, BWV 1004


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## Peter Gibaloff

Zigeunerweisen, Op.20

but also, you can hear many melodies in transcription for violine...


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