This week I’m going with my all-time favourite piece of music: Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.
It’s occupied that place since my early twenties when my Dad had a copy of it that he played for me. The violinist was one Maxim Vengerov.
I’ve listened to this countless times since and it holds such rich associations for me. The first of those is my time in Belize. Living TV free (the Mexican soap operas did nothing for me except introducing me to Enrique Iglesias) meant that I spent most of my free time reading or listening to the 9 cassettes Id taken with me in my rucksack. It was an eclectic collection as I’m sure you would have predicted if you’ve been reading these posts for a while. One of them had the Vengerov on it. That would usually be the accompaniment to my reading.
It was the occasional soundtrack to my first reading of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire and brought another level to the book for me. I found a very nice version of Vengerov playing the full concerto here for you to enjoy…
Vengerov is a Russian born Israeli who has been playing the violin since the age of 5. He is widely regarded as one of the best in the world and I for one think he makes the violin sing in a way I’ve never heard from anyone else. Put this together with Tchaikovsky’s beautiful work and you have this: a piece that can warm your heart, make you cry, lift you up from your darkest mood. Tchaikovsky wrote it on the shores of Lake Geneva while he was recovering from depression, regaining his inspiration as he did so.
Cheers for reading and watching. If you enjoyed this, check out the links below for some of my other Monday Music posts.
Have a good week,
Richard
The Ardenna Crossing 
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