I much prefer live music (these days, now we can afford it).
Just returned from a performance in our town by the Cologne Chamber Philharmonic, a string sextet: three violins, a viola, violoncello & double bass.
AMAZING!!
Watching the fingers of the violin soloist Sergey Didorenko flying through Vivaldi, Mozart, Paganini & Saint-Saens was sheer delight! What’s more, he did the entire performance without sheet music in front of him!
And the violoncello player, Dmitrij Gornowkij blew us all away with his performance of Paganini’s Moses Variations — played on ONE STRING!
The story is that Paganini was performing it when three of the four strings progressively broke… so he carried on, doing the whole thing on his one remaining string!
Have not heard that story before, always wondered why… thought it might have been written as a challenge to other players.
Apparently Paganini had unusually long fingers which helped him stretch up & down the strings.
If anyone is interested, they are playing in Echuca Sunday afternoon, then Beechworth Sunday evening.
Google it.
Just to let you know: I have very catholic tastes, my CD collection includes classical, 40s Big Bands, 60s rock (Shadows, Beatles etc), country (ballads, not the achy breaky heart stuff), the Goons, Peter Sellers & Rowan Atkinson.
Oh, and Monty Python…
Apparently Paganini had unusually long fingers which helped him stretch up & down the strings. 
