I agree. Amazing rich sound with a real heart and a lovely confidence.

I agree. I've never heard a more beautiful viola. Since he's the principal violist of the Berlin Philharmonic, I guess one would expect him to have an exceptional one.

Kath Terry any other recommendation for string quartet a flutist can play?

Thank you

Guy Braunstein could replace the second violin with a flute, too. That would give him the afternoon free 😅

Now she just has to learn how to express the music with the music.

There is always the question of when the violin is asked to play two notes at once. This can often be ignored when the violin is playing sharp chords but there are times where the strings are asked to play extended melodies, perhaps 3, 4, 5 notes in a row where the melody is played in 3rds or 6ths. But you are right, many of these wonderful chamber pieces sound marvelous when played by woodwinds.

+David Young flute, of course, is not woodwind. The purity of flute enables it to replace violin - would not work with clarinet or even oboe

The flute is regarded as a member of the woodwind family, even though now most flutes are not made of wood. The clarinet is in a different register, similar to the viola and there are many pieces where these instruments are interchangeable. There are also pieces where an oboe can replace a flute althoujgh it would not work in this piece.

The oboe would have more difficulty in replacing a violin or a flute due to its lesser extension - some two octaves and a half - and lesser agility in general. However, a flute replacing a violin has its own challenges, besides the more obvious issue of not making chords. The flute tends to loose sound potency as well precision and speed of attack at the lowest register. Any session in forte and very quick articulation in the low region is challenging - like one finds in the first measures of Khatchaturian concert. On other hand, the extreme high region tends to sound too high in sound potency, as well lacking flexibility to do pianissimo in legato. In the violin, one may ascend indefinitely in pianissimo, a very good flutist goes up to a pianissimo C6 but further than that a pianissimo is beyond human. C#6, D6 or Eb6 usually are only possible in forte and are seriously challenging for reaching the same souplesse as a violin does.

Besides that, there is the low region, where a violin goes down to G2, but a flute goes down to a C3 or in some flutes to B2. Dennis Bouriakov solved this problem by transposing some violin concerts like Tchaikovsky a minor third above, from D Major to F Major, since there were important sections in the lowest limit that would be meaningless if transposed just an octave above. But in chamber music like a string quartet a lot of the sonority of the strings (like the bare strings) would be descharacterized.

Since I made this post a month ago, I have learned some details about this curiosity. It transpires that when Dvorak wrote this score back in 1893, he wrote the viola notes rather sloppily in these measures (didn't they all?). When the parts were prepared by Simrock, his publisher, the rhythm in the viola part differed from the other three instruments. Dvorak later pointed out the part preparation error, with his intention that all four players play the exact same rhythm. But the altered viola part persisted in some publishers versions, and can be found in the contemporary Kalmus viola part, for instance. So the mistake in the viola parts dates back to when Dvorak made his autograph score. It was corrected and I believe that all of the full scores of Dvorak's Quartet reflect the correction. I have listened to about 80 performances of this quartet that can be heard on KZfaq. Approximately 30 percent play from the altered viola part and about 70 percent from the correct viola park. If you listen to a version of the Emerson Quartet on KZfaq you will listen to the performance with the score shown on the KZfaq video. The Emerson plays from the altered viola part and if you have a good ear and can read the music, you will notice that the Emerson plays differently from the score that you read in front of you... but only in those two measures. On professional Quartet, the Dolazal Quartet (Dolazalovo Kwarttet) play with the altered viola part and have explained to me that they prefer it, believing it to be the better version musically. Both sound find and this curiosity is nothing more than a historical curiosity.

there is a publication for 4 flutes. than you can have the transcription

Zahra Draz you can play the 1st violin part, but sometimes you will have to play a few notes an octave higher, because they don't exist on the flute

Same for me, like the flute is amazing but the first violin is what I prefer

sounds the same to me

Richard Carchia well considering the flute has a different range of the violin. I could say its definitely an arrangement

It's arrangement. There are notes that she doesn't playa! Might be for the range

why what?

But its youtube.......not the musicians.......

If there were a dislike button for comments, that would be totally appropriate at this moment.

Noel Medford Lucky you. Every comment in this thread has a reply icon. Next to that is a black flag icon. Click on that, and you can block that person. He will not see your comment, you will not see his comments. :) I regularly troll-block flat_earthers, anti-NASA conspiraturds, anti-CERN fanatics, 9/11 twoofers etc etc etc.

You can Use "Adblock" it removes all kind of ads in youtube and other pages

yeah god forbid someone wishing to monitize their life's work... anyway: You could pay for KZfaq Red and be ad free. This assures monitization still happens, you just don't have to watch the ads or have your program interrupted. Ad block software is another solution, just one that only benifits the ad block software company and not the artists, but if you are seriously complaining about this and even go as far as "dislike" this beautiful work well, you probably don't mind this..