Chenyu plays Vavildi

I discovered this lovely piece from Maurice Maurer’s YouTube channel.

Although it’s rather short and simple, it has some beautiful dialogs between the two violin parts and some wonderful textures through the climax.

This is the second movement of a concerto written by Antonio Vivaldi for two violins. I recorded both parts by myself, using the piano accompanyment I found on Maurice’s channel.

It reminds me of my grandparents reading me bedtime stories when I was a little boy. The story is usually from a classic children’s book that starts with the sentence “Long long ago…”. They try to voice act the different characters of the story with a little bit of flair. Yet story always has a calmness and an old world charm in it. As a little boy, it was one of my fondest memories.

You may notice the two violin parts have slightly different timbres. Violin 1 (left) is a bit more brilliant and edgy while violin 2 (right) sounds purer and sweeter. This is the result of using two different bows on the same violin. Although bows do not produce a sound by themselves, they have a huge influnce on the timbre of the intrument.

Recorded on Feb 25, 2023 in my Seattle home