Bach, Beethoven, Brahms ( & Mozart ? )

Snapdragon;  That new member in our geezer group----marmaladecat? or onemarathon?  He plays violin.  You should tell him about THIS thread.

Arguably the best violinist in history 

Not to take away from their accomplishments, I've never understood terms like "best violinist" or "best conductor" or "best anything". He/she may have won some prestigious award or contest or whatever, but that was momentary, probably repeated many times, but there are always plenty more like him/her in the wings. They're all "best" at other times. The violinist, pianist, singer, golfer, swimmer, chess player is "best" one day, not so good another day.

Ok,  will do.

I think in this case we can use the term "best ever", because he was absolutely perfect.

His sound, his technique, his musicality, etc.

All violinists today, from the very beginners to the ones that win the most prestigious competitions worldwide listen his recordings all the time. He is a true example of how a piece should be performed. 

There were other extraordinary violinists like Heifetz, Kogan, Milstein, Szeryng, among others. But Oistrakh and Heifetz are widely considered as the greatests ever. 

And personally I like Oistrakh a little bit more. 

It is not about winning competitions (Heifetz never won, or even competed at the most prestigious competitions in the world), it is about the fact that there is no one single recording or video where you listen to them and you say "mmm this was not good". 

They play some pieces better than others, but even the pieces that are not their "strongest" ones are still played at an amazing level. 

In 100 years, violinists will still be talking about Oistrakh and Heifetz. 

I play quite a bit of classic music and I sort of like Beethoven the best for right now

Thank you for that post, Pashak. In principle, I see what you're saying. But to add to what you wrote, I think we have come to expect perfection from the greatest performers as far as technical mastery is concerned. But there is always interpretation. How can there be the "best" interpretation when that is so subjective? But you're quite right in naming Oistrakh and Heifetz as perhaps the best two violinists ever, but to mind come so many others that deserve similar awe when they perform. Itzak Perlman? Fritz Kreisler? Sarah Chang? Midori? Nicolo Paganini? Yehudi Menuhin? -- oh, I've just scratched the surface. What is it that marks someone, in your opinion, as "the best"?

Kpop4Life, I was a bit amused by your post. How can someone "sort of" like Beethoven?

Thanks for all of these new posts.

The name that we need to mention here today ( on March 25th ) is Bartok ( from 1881 ).

Thanks for the post Kaynight. Sorry I'm not that good at the Klingon language   lol.  

March 31st, the big day for Hayden ( in 1732 ).

Oh, no! Today is March 31st? I thought it was April 1st already and changed all the calendars here. All day I was bemoaning the fact that I didn't play any April Fool's jokes on anyone. Now I have one more day to get cracking on that. Anyway, Happy Birthday, Papa Haydn!!

Thanks for the post Snapdragon.

We do happen to have a name for April 1st as well, going back to the year 1873 ( for Mr Rachmaninoff ).

Despite his birthday, Sergey Vasilyevich was no fool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2GKgFZ_ioQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT_ZhhQeudY

Was he? I knew nothing about that. Would you care to elucidate us?

(I'm assuming by "Guy in post 442" you meant Rachmaninoff and not badenwurtca.)

Thanks for the posts. 

This one made me laugh.

Thanks for the new posts.