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My local radio station is winding up a fund drive during which one premium is a pair of tickets to a Joshua Bell concert and another is a Joshua Bell CD. They were pronouncing that Joshua Bell is the great violinist of our time earlier in the week but today it has been tempered to the "greatest american violinist of our time".
Either of those is highly suspect to me. In each instance whom would you nominate?
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Windsurfer said:
My local radio station is winding up a fund drive during which one premium is a pair of tickets to a Joshua Bell concert and another is a Joshua Bell CD. They were pronouncing that Joshua Bell is the great violinist of our time earlier in the week but today it has been tempered to the "greatest american violinist of our time".
Either of those is highly suspect to me. In each instance who would you nominate?
For sheer variety of projects undertaken and the number of compositions comissioned (if we don't get new music, the repertoire gets stale) it would have to Mutter as my "worlds best" but even that is highly subjective (both in terms of choice and the terminology as you rightly point out) and I might have a different preference tomorrow. Others that I admire highly include Kremer, Bell, Manze, Podger and Kennedy (all for very different reasons).
As to America's best - apart from Bell no one currently stands out for me but I'm sure I'll be reminded of some other fine players shortly! On an objective(ish) basis, I do imagine that Bell outsells most other American violinists. No idea when one broadens this to other nationalities.
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Post by tream December 9, 2005 (3 of 38)
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Polly Nomial said:
For sheer variety of projects undertaken and the number of compositions comissioned (if we don't get new music, the repertoire gets stale) it would have to Mutter as my "worlds best" but even that is highly subjective (both in terms of choice and the terminology as you rightly point out) and I might have a different preference tomorrow. Others that I admire highly include Kremer, Bell, Manze, Podger and Kennedy (all for very different reasons).
As to America's best - apart from Bell no one currently stands out for me but I'm sure I'll be reminded of some other fine players shortly! On an objective(ish) basis, I do imagine that Bell outsells most other American violinists. No idea when one broadens this to other nationalities.
To your list I would add Midori (really - check out her SACD's, they are excellent) and Julia Fischer.
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Post by seth December 9, 2005 (4 of 38)
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Gil Shaham
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Post by nickc December 9, 2005 (5 of 38)
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seth said:
Gil Shaham
Whatver you think of the balances in his recordings you could never discount Itzakh Perlman.
Cheers
Nick
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Post by raffells December 9, 2005 (6 of 38)
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Windsurfer said:
My local radio station is winding up a fund drive during which one premium is a pair of tickets to a Joshua Bell concert and another is a Joshua Bell CD. They were pronouncing that Joshua Bell is the great violinist of our time earlier in the week but today it has been tempered to the "greatest american violinist of our time".
Either of those is highly suspect to me. In each instance who would you nominate?
Sorry to be a damp squid on this Bruce but you can tell it was an Amercian question just by its content..
WHY does there have to be a greatest in anything..?
Seriously when Im over there, this obsession at, Greatest,Best Ever this and that becomes laughable .Sports games cannot even be a tie or a draw.Even your slot machines have to be win or lose and none of the fine variations that can be utilized. Even when the original idea of declaring greatest current American violinist has to be beaten with Greatest American violinist of all time.Its turning art forms into the same presentation as competitive sports games ?,,It wont be long before the next upgrade is then comparing him with the Greatest violinist of all time..Then if he doesnt win he becomes the American runner up to ???????? whom.
..Yes Its highly suspect and I would have been happier if the thread was about the greatest American violinist sacd issue or something like that. ...
Someone once said "there are many shades of grey" but I suppose that station would say "Yes but which was is the best?"
Dave
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Post by Beagle December 9, 2005 (7 of 38)
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raffells said:
Sorry to be a damp squid on this...
In a previous lifetime, I did the artist-thing, but was humbled one autumn day in 1978, outside the big artist-materials store on the edge of Greenwich Village: Hundreds of talented young artists were waiting outside the doors when they opened, and as I watched they swept through like locusts, and cleaned out the store. Suddenly I realised that, given global population growth, there were dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Michelangelos, DaVincis, Galileos duking it out with me.
So, if you ask 'Who is the current Heifetz?', you should rephrase your question: 'Who are the current 3.6 Heifetzes?'. And Heifetz only had to kick his way through circa 1.7 billion competitors, in order to enter your consciousness. May I suggest that ANY violinist you have actually heard of, must therefore be BLOODY DAMNED GOOD, period.
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Post by Scott December 9, 2005 (8 of 38)
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Polly Nomial said:
For sheer variety of projects undertaken and the number of compositions comissioned (if we don't get new music, the repertoire gets stale) it would have to Mutter as my "worlds best" but even that is highly subjective (both in terms of choice and the terminology as you rightly point out) and I might have a different preference tomorrow. Others that I admire highly include Kremer, Bell, Manze, Podger and Kennedy (all for very different reasons).
As to America's best - apart from Bell no one currently stands out for me but I'm sure I'll be reminded of some other fine players shortly! On an objective(ish) basis, I do imagine that Bell outsells most other American violinists. No idea when one broadens this to other nationalities.
Hilary Hahn stands out, though I would call her very good, but not yet great. Ditto for Julia Fischer, Manze and Podger (limited repetoire), Salerno-Sonnenberg and Kennedy.
Joshua Bell is near great. Same for Pinchas Zukerman, Thomas Zehetmair, and Kremer. Bell's just not there yet - could his skills be placed alongside Arthur Grumiaux? Sorry, not yet.
The only living violinists who can enter that arena are Mutter and Perlman, since the death of Stern.
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Post by stvnharr December 10, 2005 (9 of 38)
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raffells said:
Sorry to be a damp squid on this Bruce but you can tell it was an Amercian question just by its content..
WHY does there have to be a greatest in anything..?
Seriously when Im over there, this obsession at, Greatest,Best Ever this and that becomes laughable .Sports games cannot even be a tie or a draw.Even your slot machines have to be win or lose and none of the fine variations that can be utilized. Even when the original idea of declaring greatest current American violinist has to be beaten with Greatest American violinist of all time.Its turning art forms into the same presentation as competitive sports games ?,,It wont be long before the next upgrade is then comparing him with the Greatest violinist of all time..Then if he doesnt win he becomes the American runner up to ???????? whom.
..Yes Its highly suspect and I would have been happier if the thread was about the greatest American violinist sacd issue or something like that. ...
Someone once said "there are many shades of grey" but I suppose that station would say "Yes but which was is the best?"
Dave
I agree with Dave on this. Why does there have to "a greatest"? AFAIK, it's not a competetion!!!
And Beagle is correct in that almost anyone you hear at a concert or in a recording is going to be very, very good.
Why worry about "who's greatest".
Just enjoy each one and their own particular way of playing music.
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Post by Beagle December 10, 2005 (10 of 38)
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stvnharr said:
And Beagle is correct in that almost anyone you hear at a concert or in a recording is going to be very, very good.
Allow me to correct myself:
Any violinist you have heard of -- with the egregious exception of The Liberace of the Violin, André Rieu. May his face never besmirch the cover of a SACD!
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