Suzuki picked Friedrich Seitz’s Concerto No. 2 in G Major, the third movement, as the Book Four opener.  I have been listening to it like a good Suzuki Kid, and have been looking forward to getting going on it, though feeling a bit intimidated. Book Four has several concerto movements – including Vivaldi and Bach! – but it’s not until Book Five that all the movements of any single concerto come together for the ability to play one through in its entirety.

Yesterday, in my first lesson in three weeks, we dug in.  After running through the beautiful Book Three finale – the Bach Bourree that I’ve been polishing for a while now – Teacher declared it passable and I stepped into concerto-land.  This Seitz is lots of fun.  The bowing is different and complicated right out of the gate.  There’s a two bar section of double stops.  There’s an extended section of doubled sixteenth notes, and at the end there’s a big finale flourish – this third movement is actually the final movement of the concerto.

The concertos of Seitz are works for students – I’m not sure how you make that distinction if the composer doesn’t tell you, as he did in this case with the ones he wrote – the original German titles all include the word Schuler, which Wikipedia translates as “pupil.”  He wrote many works for students, and was himself an accomplished violinist who spent the bulk of his professional career as a concertmaster and a conductor.  He died in 1918 and is considered a Romantic composer.

Book Three, that’s a wrap.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan