Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35

Music Minus One Violin

By Geoffrey Applegate

I was very excited when I discovered that Music Minus One did this concerto, probably my favourite for violin. However, it's too slow and near impossible to stay with the accompaniment. However, where this wins is if you use it as a practice tool rather than a performance one...

. Personally, I have a tendency to rush sometimes, and playing with the soloist helps me to 'clean up' areas of the concerto that need attention. I also have the Weber Concertino (Clarinet) which I also found to be too slow, but was easier to play with due to the nature of the accompaniment not being quite so sparse. Perhaps this simply works better with some concertos than with others? Come on, MMO, speed them up to the right tempo! Maybe even consider a DVD as there will be visual clues, such as a conductor...

The rating is NOT for the concerto itself, but for the usability of this music-minus-one. I have tried the first movement with the CD, and it is difficult to match the tempo. I listened to the orchestra with soloist track, and there are places where the playing is...

slow, and then somehow it gets much faster, as if the soloist is trying to catch up with the orchestra. No wonder it was crazy when I tried to play along. This agrees with what another reviewer said.

I resently saw this concerto performed by James Ehnes with the OSM and it was really good. People stood up to applaud after the first mvt because they liked it so much. If you have the time and talent to learn this it is an absolute must!!!

I was looking forward to using this Tchaikovsky Concerto CD, but was disappointed to find the tempos so very slow. The recording of soloist with orchestra is undertempo, which would make it a valuable asset if one was just beginning to learn the notes, but for a violinist who knows...

the concerto well,it was rather dull and boring. There are other concertos that would likely work well with the orchestra separately format for playing along, but the Tchaikovsky concerto has too many places that require rubato to make it practical. I found this slow version of the orchestra accompaniment frustrating and a hindrance to the musical nature of this piece.

When this piece was first played, a famous music critic tore this piece to shreads. Tchaikovsky took this to heart and will never forget this experiece. However, this is by far one of the top pieces on the violin repetoire (along with Brahms, Korngold, and others). Also, I think anyone...

who would say such a terrible thing about this piece thinks music is supposed to only be beutiful, and never technical. This piece isn't unplayable, it just takes time to learn.