Suzuki Book Four arrived yesterday – I ripped the CD into iTunes but have yet to listen. I hope to get to that tonight after I get home from a long day at work.  The book opens with some tonalization exercises, including the well-known Brahms Lullaby, which looks totally approachable.  Teacher hasn’t spent a lot of time with the exercises in the Suzuki books – for drills and etudes she’s given me supplemental materials instead, so I’m unsure whether we’ll formally do these lullaby tonalization exercises – there’s also one by Schubert.  I’ll play them regardless.

But then the book really hits the major leagues – the Seitz Concerto is the opener, and the book finishes with the Bach Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor, indicating the student does the Violin Two part.  Zowie!

The most cursory of glances at the scores makes it clear that we’re not in beginner-land anymore.  The repertoire is exciting and a bit frightening.  The Seitz concerto has a cadenza and double stops and everything you’d expect from something called a “Concerto.”  The Vivaldi Concerto in A is also in the book – some readers may know that in addition to his prowess in composition, Vivaldi is a candidate for the best violinist ever to live.

Oh, I’m very excited.

But first, I get to finish the Bach “Bourree,” That is to say, Bach’s Cello Suite Number 3 – this past week I began working on the second half.  So I’d estimate another month before I get to dive into Book Four.  And I don’t mind a bit – I think I could play this Bourree Book Three finale forever. I told Teacher, who in this week’s lesson noted that I seemed to have done a lot of work on it, that I basically just can’t stop playing it.  But really, that’s true of most of the Book Three tunes.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan