Gilles Apap

Speaking of reaching out to other genres/trying to appeal to the audience, I don't know if any of you have seen this video yet, but there's a clip on YouTube of vioinist Gilles Apap playing a cadenza to the third movement of the Mozart G Major violin concerto (I think it's G Major). He really is an extraordinary musician. I really wish I could be this guy, and I think it'd be awesome to have more "classical" musicans like him around. To quote a youtube user on yet another video of him: ""this guy is a freakin' genius! breaking so many boundaries and traditions, although some people may find this offensive and unusual, we need more violinists like this today, to be able to be so creative, improvize and tap into so many different musical genres."

Even if you aren't familiar with the concerto or the cadenza, this will blow your mind. He goes through so many different genres, but he does it so tastefully, it's simply amazing. Part of what I love about this video is watching the camera occasionally focus on the facial expressions of various orchestra members during his cadenza, which range from amused and appreciative to loftily disapproving. If you haven't seen it yet, do check it out. I don't find it at all degrading to Mozart... after all, he was known to be a bit of a jokester himself, wasn't he? :)

Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gilles+apap+mozart+cadenza&search=Search

Enjoy! I was in love with this video for at least a month!

Oh, and by the way, if you want to see a clip of him playing the first movement with a more traditional cadenza, here is the link for that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3STQBTk_D8&NR=1