The Best Paganini Cadenza - Philippe Hirschhorn [Live, 1967]

By Daniel Kurganov, Violinist

Niccolò Paganini. Hirschhorn had an amazing combination of intensity, sensitivity, taste, obsession and elegance. Things to notice: - Look at how low his right arm is, especially when acquiring the G string. Made even more extreme by the fact that his instrument is very flat on his shoulder. I think he's the most extreme of anyone I've seen in that regard. Notice how his hand/fingers "sink" into the string as a result of this right arm anticipation. - Is he tense or is he loose? Of course, he's loose, otherwise, you wouldn't hear what you hear. But, look at how immovable his violin appears. On first glance you might think he's tense and gripping the violin for dear life. After all, there isn't much in the way of 'organic swaying' up/down/sideways with the instrument. The violin is sitting on an immovable cloud, and then hands are dancing around it in perfect harmony. You can see the result of an absolute obsession with the fundamentals of technique. Putting everything in its place without force. Live recording with enhanced audio. Brussels 1967, after he won the gold medal at the Queen Elisabeth Competition.

Happy Birthday but 13 classical composers are fighting over the last slice

This is my take on "Happy Birthday" Variations! I had the idea to have composers (represented by their pieces) fight against each other in a parody-quotation format, while also integrating the Happy Birthday motif in as many places as possible. I've listed all the quotations and instances of Happy Birthday in the timestamps below, but see if you can guess them all! I'll talk a bit about the background of these variations (if you can even call it a loose variation format and not an intertextual fantasy/rhapsody). I've seen quite a lot of versions of Happy Birthday (most memorable for me were Cateen's "Happy Birthday To Everyone 12 Variations", "How to sound like x composer series" by Nahre Sol, and Twoset Violin's "If Classical Composers Wrote Happy Birthday"). I also particularly liked Cyprien Katsaris' 3 Variations which featured pieces by 3 composers in counterpoint with Happy Birthday, so decided to do a mixture of both blending a pastiche format of Nahre Sol/Twoset and a quotation format of Katsaris, but instead of doing only a few composers, I decided to go all out and include 13 composers (though technically it's 15 composers if you include that little John Cage "quotation" at the end, as well as my little self quotation in the middle). 0:00 - Happy Birthday Motif, though I added a little bit of left-hand embellishment. 0:08 - Nocturne Op. 48 No. 1 by Chopin in the soprano/bass line, blended with HBD in the alto line. 0:15 - Symphony No. 5 - Beethoven that "interrupts/foreshadows" something - sort of similar to what I did in my previous Fur Elise quotation video 0:22 - Sonata 16 in C Major K545 - Mozart - but HBD is the head motif, and a little twinkle of an answer is heard at 0:24. 0:29 - HBD in the top voice in counterpoint with Mozart K545 0:36 - HBD in the bass, which then migrates to the middle line in the following bar - all while in the middle of the Mozart Sonata 0:39 - Fate Motif again from Beethoven 5 0:43 - Unusual direction of Fate Motif leads to a C# modulation into Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu 0:47 - HBD against Fantasie Impromptu 0:55 - I went for a sequential direction with the latter half of HBD+ fantasie impromptu in order to smoothly transition into the A# Diminished chord, signifying the beginning of Appassionata 3rd mov 1:02 - Appassionata 3rd mov, Beethoven. 1:10 - HBD in the bass 1:13 - Another instance of bass HBD 1:17 - The lick, before going back to appassionata 1:23 - HBD in the left hand - alternates with hand crossings similar to appassionata 1:31 - Note the accents in LH and RH which signify the 2nd part of HBD (C C C A(b) F E D), and once sequenced they are able to transition into the next piece. 1:38 - Transition into Moonlight Sonata 3rd Movement 1:50 - The Lick (again) 1:53 - The Lick, (again, again) 1:56 - Dürnitz Sonata No. 6 in D Major K 284 / 205b, Mozart 2:03 - Dürnitz Sonata combined with HBD 2:13 - I tried writing the beginning of a fugue using HBD as the subject, so not really a Bach quotation haha 2:27 - Prelude in G Minor Op. 23 No. 5 Rachmaninoff - The annotation is just a reference to that time where Rachmaninoff greeted Stravinsky with a jar of honey 2:32 - HBD in the middle register 2:37 - HBD (faster diminution form) echoed the middle then lower register 2:44 - Goldberg Variations Theme - Bach 2:50 - Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 - Liszt 3:03 - Moonlight Sonata 1st Movement - Beethoven, superimposed against HBD 3:29 - Claire de Lune - Debussy 3:36 - HBD in thirds (reminiscent of Claire de Lune) 3:45 - Second half of HBD in thirds, transformed with Debussy-esque rhythms 3:55 - Back to Claire de Lune (middle section) 4:01 - Fur Elise - Beethoven (Although this is also a self-quotation from my previous Fur Elise quotation piece, which quotes Claire de Lune) 4:08 - Modulation into Sonata No. 2 in G minor Mov. 1, Schumann. HBD starts on the syncopated eighth note at m. 150, then echoed at m. 153 4:20 - HBD shifted to the second measure of the phrase 4:25 - HBD head motif (G G A G) on the syncopated quarter notes and transposed (see accents) 4:36 - Full HBD is heard, but off-beat 4:39 - Another syncopated version of HBD 4:53 - Wedding March from A Midsummer Night's Dream - Mendelssohn 4:59 - Slavonic Dances Op 46 No 1 - Dvorak 5:02 - Two to Tango - Nicholas Ma (Self quotation from one of my compositions!) 5:06 - Gymnopédie No. 1 - Satie 5:13 - HBD with Gymnopédie-style accompaniment 5:31 - HBD against Alkan Op. 39 No. 8 5:37 - HBD reiterated in LH twice, then swapped back to RH 5:57 - Erlkonig - Schubert 6:01 - Sonata No. 2 4th movement - Schumann 6:10 - HBD in LH against Schumann, ending on a syncopated note leading into the next piece 6:14 - HBD against Prokofiev Piano Concerto 2 Cadenza 6:35 - Still Prok 2 Cadenza, but Middle Staff voices HBD 6:59 - HBD repeated in sixths 7:13 - Final Statement of HBD!