Concerto No 5, 1st Movement, F Seitz
Teach Suzuki Violin
As I said in my Song of the Wind post, from time to time I will cover pieces from other Suzuki books, not necessarily in the order they appear. The reason for this is that you may be working with a later piece and would prefer not to wait until I finally get there from the beginning. That being said, if you’d like me to discuss a particular piece or aspect of Suzuki teaching, please reply in the comments below or email me at john@teachsuzukiviolin.com. Ok, Let’s get to it!
Concerto No. 5 is another of Fritz Seitz’s marvels of invention for the young student violinist. The first movement packs an array of little musical treasures into just two pages, with little gems such as dancing triplets, surprising key changes, a sonorous legato section, an exciting flow of rapid semiquavers, finishing with some emphatic double stops.
There are some great recordings available by artists such as David Cerone, David Nadian, Takako Nishizaki, William Preucil and the original Suzuki version by Koji Toyoda. The brillante section is quick, too fast for young students to play along with easily. During the buildup to normal tempo, practise slowly and evenly.
Main study points
- The violin solo begins with a bold risoluto – whole bow minims in a short four bar phrase, backed up with four answering bars. This strong opening theme is balanced by the meandering eight bars of the third phrase. The bowing may feel a little unusual in this phrase, so memorize accurately from the beginning. Take care with the B# C# slur – using 2, 3 or 1, 2 fingering for B# – C#.
- The dancing triplets at bar 30 are a burst of energy. Listen to the melody and pulse on the first notes of each triplet, without becoming too obvious or heavy.
Click on the scores below to view and print. A PDF version is also available in Resources.