Paganini Caprice Nr 9 VIOLIN solo. Ingo-Rainer Voelskow. Compare to viola version in last video...

Viola or violin... which is more difficult, which is more beautiful... Trying to find out I practised for 2 months much more viola than violin (and much more than ever before!! ;-) Of course, - this is a very personal opinion and experience!! To make a real difference I took a 43 cm viola (16,9 inch), - what is a real hard work (and fantastic training!) for a violinist, even if I am not a small man... So, what to say...: practising – and performing - Paganini on viola is hard, - really very hard! After 10 min practising chords and double stops on this viola I always needed a rest for my fingers, still after 2 months of practise! Taking now the violin this instrument seemed to me to be a toy for little kids beside the viola! So violin is much less exhausting than viola, - but on the other side much more delicate: all the smaller distances need so much more sensitivity... I had to learn again to handle the light bow, what in the first moment seemed to be a lightweight feather (nearly unbelievable: just 10 gr difference!). Finally I was not able to play the Caprice in same tempo with viola as with violin, - and else I saw, I would need so much practice to get all perfect in tune, - I gave up and show You the result of 2 weeks of practice. One could say, viola is more for tall, strong people, (lets keep silent about all these jokes about slow-going violists...;-) . Surely right. So how are some small women playing large violas so well? My great respect!!! The motivation to...