Rodion Shchedrin - Balalaika for Violin solo pizzicato - A CatHatFiddle Video Recording

Click here to download an MP3 of this song: Apologies for the recent Kieran/violin-centric focus on the channel! Hopefully there will be some more variation soon... We have a few interesting projects lined up including finishing off some old recordings, getting going on with some new original material and also resurrecting not one, but 2 radio style plays which have been lying dormant for some time but are now approaching completion! But first I’m afraid I have another violin video to post. I’ve been meaning to make a video of myself playing this piece since the start of the summer, and I’ve only just got around to doing it after being away and doing all manner of other bits and bobs. This is a fairly unusual piece for violin. There aren’t many pieces played entirely plucked or pizzicato, and furthermore some of the plucking techniques required are quite obscure. When I was learning how to play the piece I spent a long time searching for recordings and videos of other people performing it to get some ideas from, but this was quite hard work, as there’s only one commercial recording of the piece in existence (by the virtuoso Maxim Vengerov to whom this work is dedicated by the composer). The end result was that I developed a variety of different playing techniques and approaches with the help of my violin teacher, Anna Cashell, and eventually worked out how to play the piece to some degree! If there’s anyone else out there who also happens to end up giving this piece a go, and I do recommend it because it’s a lot of fun, I’d like to hope that maybe this video will be of some help to them, because it’s quite an unusual piece to come to terms with! The video shows a closer angle which will hopefully give a better view of some of the unusual techniques being employed... Aside from all that I hope that even non-violinists will find this interesting to some extent. It’s not often you see the violin being played sideways like a guitar, or in fact the balalaika which this piece is named after! The Fiddle p.s. If you find looking at my face for the duration of the recording too difficult, why not try this excellent alternative version created by The Hat featuring the interpretive dance of Thom Yorke! Kieran ’The Fiddle’ Burling - Violin, Audio Production, Video Editing Jessica ’The Cat’ Chiba - Video, Colour grading