Top 10 Warhorses

[Megan Westberg]

I'm looking for some feedback for an upcoming article and was hoping the Strings Community could weigh in. What are your favorite pieces in the standard repertoire? It doesn't necessarily need to be something you personally play, just music that deeply inspires you. Include as many as you want: I really appreciate your comments!

[Kevin Keating]

Can't believe nobody's posted here.  I've been playing only about five years so what I "can" play and I "hope" to play in the future are very different things.  I love Vivaldi though as many violin concertos as I've heard of his, I'm don't think I'd know the Four Seasons if it was played to me over twelve months.  Weird.  Strangely I'm also not a huge Beethoven or Mozart fan.  It's just personal taste.  My teacher (started lessons last year) has me working on Vivaldi's Sonata 5 in Bm and Rieding's Concerto in Bm.  On my own I'm slowly working through Mendelssohn's Canzonetta from his String Quartet in Eb.

To me, "warhorses" are like the Top 40 pop songs.  Overplayed and beat to death so much that it's hard to do anything new and fresh with them.  As a guitarist, when I play cover songs I tend to pick songs that are lesser known and not necessarily the hits.  I really like when an artist puts together a collection of unexpected pieces.  Rachel Barton Pine is good at that.  

[Ann Marie Cordial]

Unaccompanied Bach Sonatas on the viola.  It is wonderful to play by the ocean or in a wide open area.  Bach is one of those composers that seemed to understand the voice of the universe.

I once commented that I didn't like Mozart.  I thought the orchestra was going to have me drawn and quartered right there on the spot.

---Ann Marie

[Mary Green]

I like popular classical music. Some time ago at eclassical site I’ve found a cd that totally matches my preferences. The record calls “Pavane” and it includes the works of Claude Debussy, Richard Dubugnon, Gabriel Faure and Maurice Ravel, perfectly performed by Maxim Rysnov and Ashley Wass.

[Holly Salls]

legende by Wienieski

melodie, gluck