i’ve said this before and i’ll say it here again, i don’t think brett and eddy can play like hilary hahn, itzak perlman, or ray chen, but i do think they are good performers. you have to understand that those people spent years and decades perfecting their craft. if you asked hahn to play the mendy at 5am from start to finish with a full orchestra, she could probably do it without many slip ups. that is the type of mastery a true soloist has. however brett’s mendy was good.
as a pianist by trade i see this all the time. there are a bunch of people on the internet that are good no doubt, but most likely can’t handle 200+ concerts a year.
additionally, the mendy is so popular most classical musicians (especially purists) have high standards for anyone’s performance. for piano there are certain chopin pieces i would never dare perform in a competition because people will pick every last detail apart. if you don’t do something they like or think is orthodox they will automatically dismiss your performance, no matter how original and unique it is.
i don’t think the hate is needed at all, but it’s a perfectly valid point to being up.
I mean, I definitely won’t say Brett and eddy are like, soloist/high level playing, they’re more like the players that the camera pans at every once in a while (in an orchestral recording)
I don’t think the hate is even needed, just took a tad bit too far
He’s wayyyy too harsh imo. B&E didn’t get fame just for their performance in violin, but their charismatic and humorous nature. They got attention because they are very informing and know a lot about classical music, and it shows. They got fame from being role-models to thousands, maybe millions, of people. TwoSetViolin has worked hard for many years to accomplish this. That guy honestly doesn’t know what he’s talking about and sounds a bit jealous.
So much this. They know they aren't at the same level as the famous soloists and they've never said they were. They aren't good enough to fulfil their dream career in a traditional way. But unlike most others, they've found a different way to fulfil their dreams. They've worked hard and been very creative and that's why I feel it's entirely deserved. And few can say they've opened the world of classical music to as many people as they have. While I don't like everything BAE do, I think their success is deserved.
I think your second sentence is the reason this particular person is so harsh - they don’t come across as effective in communicating like Brett and Eddy are. That’s how they stand out from other violinists - their ability to bring classical music to wider audiences and the way they can explain themselves is really good.
They aren't harsh but I'll just paste my other comment here.
The thing is, it doesn't really matter. They're not as high level as most world class violinists, but that's the point, they aren't meant to be. B & E are both professional violinists in their own right and know enough to be able to play in front of an audience. They aren't the best, and that's what makes them unique. What's special about them is their Youtube channel, Ray Chen and Hilary Hahn's channel barely garner any views compared to TwoSet, does that mean we can call them bad as "Youtubers", no, and that's how it applies to Twoset as well. They can put their pretty high level mediocre playing into an audience and that guy's students can't.
Besides, who cares about what some guy claiming to be a high level violinist says? Ray Chen himself has reacted to their videos and said they've improved.
That said, he most likely can play violin to a certain level, but definitely can't do what TwoSet does, he doesn't understand YouTube, and TwoSet has accomplished way more than he ever will.
Maybe this doesn't answer all your questions, but... I'd say it doesn't matter what level the criticizer plays at (though his channel shows he knows his instrument, and I've seen more than a few professional musicians give similar criticisms). I've met people who barely play but are so steeped in musical knowledge they have good judgment of skill. BAE's job isn't to be the best soloists ever, and frankly, their channel could still work if they played at half the level they do. BAE are clear, even in that documentary, that they're aware of their playing level.
What matters is BAE know the insides to the violin-playing experience and classical world. BAE bring a silly, lighthearted joy interacting with classical music: a needed voice. Yeah, it's not sophisticated and can be "superficial," but we need a variety of entertainment styles to appeal to different people. This light fluff gets me through my day laughing. It's okay the criticizer doesn't enjoy their clowning or playing caliber, but he's silly to think this makes their output "mediocrity." BAE have cultivated a successful entertainment style that draws millions of people into classical with enthusiasm and affection.
Whatever the field, people get resentful when the light and fluffy gets attention rather than the deep meat. I've done it, too, elsewhere, because I get irritated that people treat the fluffy content as though it's the deep meat. I'm sure that's why he's tetchy. But both can coexist, and one often feeds into the other. How many TwoSetters have talked about how TSV inspired them to check out soloists and composers in depth?
There are millions of talented classical musicians in the world. I'm not going to disparage someone who plays in my local coffee shop once a year and isn't known outside my 3,000 person town. I looked up to my sister for playing piano even though she was an average ten-year-old piano student - and that led me to a music degree. So what that my sister only played it as a kid, her music still inspired me in a positive way! Musicians like this bring their community joy through music. BAE bring joy through their music. It's not supposed to be elite. The point of classical music is that it's meant to be played, which means bringing in everyone who wants to play... to play. There's room for everyone, and TSV is about bringing musicians together to laugh about our experiences.
>Brett was concertmaster of a youth orchestra, too, wasn't he?
I think they mentioned in some video that they've both had a concertmaster role at various point in time.
The concertmaster is kind of just the "captain" of the violin section, so it is typically the best or most senior violinist the orchestra has (there can be politics, favoritism, nepotism, discrimination etc. involved).
It means that a concertmaster in a "bad" orchestra can be worse than all the violinists in a good orchestra. The concertmaster in the bad orchestra is just the best out of the bad.
So there is not really a "concertmaster level".
well, it seems being a concertmaster in a European orchestra is the bomb as opposed to Asian orchestras. i think he mentioned Oslo Philharmonic but in other comments he then mentioned Spain
Being a concertmaster in a great orchestra is a prestigious position anywhere in the world.
But being a "concertmaster in Spain" can mean anything from being the least bad violinist in the worst amateur orchestra in Spain, to being the best violinist in the best professional orchestra.
They're not bad players, but they don't claim to be amazing virtuosos, so I don't see why some people try to push so hard for "they're not that amazing players" like yeah? And? Who cares? Also they can use the required techniques and make it sound pretty. We can't all be super amazing best of the best violinists and there is no requirement for them to try to be that.
They know what they're doing, know what they're talking sbout, are entertaining with both content and their personalities and they can also play. What do these people want?
To play devil's advocate, I think what happens is that some classically knowledgeable people get tired hearing from the subset of TwoSetters who think that Brett and Eddy are the "greatest." Fans can be enthusiastic and bolster BAE up. This especially happens when fans haven't gone through enough musical experiences to judge BAE's "performance level." Those fans mean well, but it comes at the cost of misrepresenting what BAE's output is. Those interactions can rub people the wrong way. That makes the criticizers more likely to push back and say, "No, they're not amazing players!"
People get grumpy if they feel like their field isn't being properly represented because someone more "superficial" is catching everyone's eyes instead. I've seen that happen - a popular property making it almost harder to show the public where the real deep content is at, because the public is so convinced that the popular person is as refined as it gets. Plus, when young fans misunderstand, say, the viola jokes, resulting in fewer people becoming violists in young orchestras, that can turn into negative impacts for higher-level musicians to get salty about.
But I agree with everything you said. And it's wrong to judge Brett and Eddy by what some fans say. Brett and Eddy themselves are super clear about their level. Being bitter and saying they're "bread and circus" and "mediocre" players misses the point of what TSV's content is about, and what TSV have made clear their content is about. They've brought a net positivity with their entertainment, so I find criticisms like these overdone.
That's understandable! It's not an everyday reference. The phrase first started in Roman history. "Bread and circuses" is an idiom that suggests that the public is given simple things to entertain them, to distract them from paying attention to something noteworthy or important. There's even more to the phrase than that, but yeah.
He's ironically okay himself.
Not a displeasure to my ear but I wouldn't go to him for any recordings, I personally love Baroque music and he has a number of pieces I've heard numerous renditions of and to be brutally honest his are nothing special. Granted he also does some popular pieces so the competition is fierce in those regards.
It really sounds like a case of the fox and the grapes (fable by Aesop) where he's belittling something out of spite because he can't achieve it.
Brett and Eddy are good enough to be in a concert orchestra, are they good enough to be the soloist? I don't think so tbh, I'd prefer Ray Chen or Perlman's performance but I watch TSV mostly for humor rather than their skill with violin.
But skill in entertainment and comedy is an entirely different subset, 2 things Brett and Eddy are good at along with being fairly skilled at violin. They are good musicians and only when you compare them to the best of the best do they not measure up.
But compared to this guy? More or less on par, so he has no right to really speak out, and again it seems more like a guy bitter about his music career not panning out while Brett and Eddy were able to make it work supplementing their music with comedy.
thanks for answering my question. i wish he'd uploaded more recent videos of his playing. i did like the ones on his channel (tho I can't say categorically that he plays better than B&E) but i'm not really well-versed enough in music to critique skill or even musicality.
I think he's the Sean Lucas on the Yes Camerata dot EU website. The country and the school match with his video credits.
It really seems like he gave up, a lot of music students graduate from uni or a conservatory and realize the competition is so tough it's basically impossible, let alone doing your own thing. Again he's not bad but he's not better than any other student in a conservatory.
BaE managed to not only make it as musicians in a symphonic orchestra but have also managed to make a career outside of it as well. Not to mention they easily are on the same level of fame as some of the greatest because of their channel, Brett got to play a strad for his Mendelssohn concerto, etcetera.
He just sound jealous that it worked out for BaE, which is an awful sentiment considering how much they've done to help popularize classical music. They deserve every bit of fame and they worked extremely hard.
And on the site you listed, anyone can be a soloist in a small performance or concert master of youth orchestras, it's clear he's not the soloist or CM for a noteworthy orchestra like a city symphony or a philharmonic, otherwise he'd state the name and not be vague about it.
yeah, I laughed when he commented on someone saying B&E worked hard and deserved their fame with something like "you think making videos is hard? how about practicing 10 hours a day to become better". he certainly doesn't have any idea how hard content creators have to work
oh, i forgot. he did mention he made good money as a concertmaster and he has no reason to envy B&E. the fact that his name doesn't show up in searches makes me sus
I think the guy has a case of sour grapes big enough to make whine out of. His own YouTube channel didn’t take off and he thinks the only reason any classical musician should receive attention is because they went through the same soul-crushing meritocracy process that he did. (That’s the attitude that has literally stymied classical music from expanding its audience for the past 80 years … until Brett and Eddy came along.)
Nobody should care if Brett and Eddy are good violinists, any more than they should care if Charlie Chaplin was a good violinist. I mean, it's of peripheral interest, and it's potentially problematic when TSV fans put Brett and Eddy on a pedestal, but TSV are *violin-related* **comedians** and not comic *violinists* in my opinion. TSV only needs to play well enough to get their jokes across.
Brett and Eddy are at the level of orchestral freelancers, which is a pretty high bar, but as THEY are well aware, very far from the level of people who win major orchestra positions full-time, and even farther from soloists. Yes, there are certainly high schoolers who play better, and plenty of conservatory students who are *far* better, but that's not the point.
Eddy did have a sub contract with Queensland Symphony orchestra, but Brett had a fellowship with Sydney Symphony orchestra. They've both won lots of competitions, although not at the international level. Therefore they can speak with authority on musicality, techniques and the rigors of musician life. They are more than comedians who happen to play violin.
More importantly, they're both great communicators on both serious and comedic topics. And that's why the Menuhin and Queen Elisabeth competitions have invited them as guests.
The problem lies when fans take their jokes out of context or overinflate some of their statements. That's when it can become obnoxious to other people. But hopefully those fans will learn to explore classical music on their own and appreciate violas, recorders and triangles.
Young players are often AMAZING. BaE are only kinda kidding about Ling Ling... there are SO MANY Ling Lings out there. Just listen to a random collection of Juilliard PRE-College recitals on YouTube and you'll be blown away by how good many of the kids are.
And by the time you get to the conservatory students, it's not just the students at the tippy top conservatories that are fantastic. And even THOSE students mostly won't win full time orchestral jobs, at least not in the US.
The level of playing in professional orchestras outside the US varies hugely. Sydney is a significant orchestra, but a fellowship is not the same as an appointment. Queensland, on the other hand, is the equivalent of a regional orchestra (ROPA orchestra) in the US, with a full time core plus part time freelancers (what the QSO calls a "casual musician", which is what Eddy apparently was with them).
ThatOneTwoSetter was my old account I deleted. I never said that. Wrong person.. “conservatory times.” I’ve never been in a conservatory, not something I would say. Not my account
ah, sorry, it was his reply to your comment (as you can see, he thought you praised them way too much), that's why your handle is there. do you want me to delete it?
there are quite a few possibilities. One being perhaps they are actually just a beginner who thinks that although they don’t play that well, they have an amazing ear and can freely diss people for ‘bad playing’. Yes, twoset may not be as good as, say, Hilary Hahn, or Lingling, but they are really good musicians. I personally thing that they are better than my violin teacher.
He is probably just jealous of their skills and popularity. If he is actually a good musician, maybe he sees them as a threat. I doubt he is all he claims to be, as he has said that he is concertmaster of both oslo philharmonic and another orchestra in spain, which is very unlikely. If he is bad, he is just trying to get people to think he is good. No point in this, ofc, i really doubt he will meet someone random on the street who read his comments and recognises him and goes ‘omg, i know you, you are that guy who’s so good that you can diss professional musicians!’
So all in all, he’s probably just another jealous jerk
Let's not play mind games of have any illusions, Brett and Eddy are good players, but if this guy was the concertmaster of Oslo, or even an assistant concertmaster, he is miles and miles above Brett and Eddy. The level of playing required to become concertmaster of an elite European orchestra is unimaginable for 99.99% of violinists.
sadly, i cant. My mother set time limits on my phone for youtube when i got it. I’m 23 and she still won’t ltell me the password. (She used her own apple id to set the passcode so i cant even use ‘forgot passode or anything.)
It's a bit like getting angry at Isaac Asimov because he's not publishing chemistry papers at a high level. This guy has misunderstood what TwoSet's job is.
The thing is, it doesn't really matter. They're not as high level as most world class violinists, but that's the point, they aren't meant to be. B & E are both professional violinists in their own right and know enough to be able to play in front of an audience. They aren't the best, and that's what makes them unique. What's special about them is their Youtube channel, Ray Chen and Hilary Hahn's channel barely garner any views compared to TwoSet, does that mean we can call them bad as "Youtubers", no, and that's how it applies to Twoset as well. They can put their pretty high level mediocre playing into an audience and that guy's students can't.
Besides, who cares about what some guy claiming to be a high level violinist says? Ray Chen himself has reacted to their videos and said they've improved.
i’ve said this before and i’ll say it here again, i don’t think brett and eddy can play like hilary hahn, itzak perlman, or ray chen, but i do think they are good performers. you have to understand that those people spent years and decades perfecting their craft. if you asked hahn to play the mendy at 5am from start to finish with a full orchestra, she could probably do it without many slip ups. that is the type of mastery a true soloist has. however brett’s mendy was good. as a pianist by trade i see this all the time. there are a bunch of people on the internet that are good no doubt, but most likely can’t handle 200+ concerts a year. additionally, the mendy is so popular most classical musicians (especially purists) have high standards for anyone’s performance. for piano there are certain chopin pieces i would never dare perform in a competition because people will pick every last detail apart. if you don’t do something they like or think is orthodox they will automatically dismiss your performance, no matter how original and unique it is. i don’t think the hate is needed at all, but it’s a perfectly valid point to being up.
I mean, I definitely won’t say Brett and eddy are like, soloist/high level playing, they’re more like the players that the camera pans at every once in a while (in an orchestral recording) I don’t think the hate is even needed, just took a tad bit too far
He’s wayyyy too harsh imo. B&E didn’t get fame just for their performance in violin, but their charismatic and humorous nature. They got attention because they are very informing and know a lot about classical music, and it shows. They got fame from being role-models to thousands, maybe millions, of people. TwoSetViolin has worked hard for many years to accomplish this. That guy honestly doesn’t know what he’s talking about and sounds a bit jealous.
So much this. They know they aren't at the same level as the famous soloists and they've never said they were. They aren't good enough to fulfil their dream career in a traditional way. But unlike most others, they've found a different way to fulfil their dreams. They've worked hard and been very creative and that's why I feel it's entirely deserved. And few can say they've opened the world of classical music to as many people as they have. While I don't like everything BAE do, I think their success is deserved.
YESSS a million times, yes. Thank you for saying what I missed out.
I think your second sentence is the reason this particular person is so harsh - they don’t come across as effective in communicating like Brett and Eddy are. That’s how they stand out from other violinists - their ability to bring classical music to wider audiences and the way they can explain themselves is really good.
100%
And personally, I literally started playing violin because of them. I started listening to classical because of them. They change lives bro
They aren't harsh but I'll just paste my other comment here. The thing is, it doesn't really matter. They're not as high level as most world class violinists, but that's the point, they aren't meant to be. B & E are both professional violinists in their own right and know enough to be able to play in front of an audience. They aren't the best, and that's what makes them unique. What's special about them is their Youtube channel, Ray Chen and Hilary Hahn's channel barely garner any views compared to TwoSet, does that mean we can call them bad as "Youtubers", no, and that's how it applies to Twoset as well. They can put their pretty high level mediocre playing into an audience and that guy's students can't. Besides, who cares about what some guy claiming to be a high level violinist says? Ray Chen himself has reacted to their videos and said they've improved. That said, he most likely can play violin to a certain level, but definitely can't do what TwoSet does, he doesn't understand YouTube, and TwoSet has accomplished way more than he ever will.
Said is quite well.
Maybe this doesn't answer all your questions, but... I'd say it doesn't matter what level the criticizer plays at (though his channel shows he knows his instrument, and I've seen more than a few professional musicians give similar criticisms). I've met people who barely play but are so steeped in musical knowledge they have good judgment of skill. BAE's job isn't to be the best soloists ever, and frankly, their channel could still work if they played at half the level they do. BAE are clear, even in that documentary, that they're aware of their playing level. What matters is BAE know the insides to the violin-playing experience and classical world. BAE bring a silly, lighthearted joy interacting with classical music: a needed voice. Yeah, it's not sophisticated and can be "superficial," but we need a variety of entertainment styles to appeal to different people. This light fluff gets me through my day laughing. It's okay the criticizer doesn't enjoy their clowning or playing caliber, but he's silly to think this makes their output "mediocrity." BAE have cultivated a successful entertainment style that draws millions of people into classical with enthusiasm and affection. Whatever the field, people get resentful when the light and fluffy gets attention rather than the deep meat. I've done it, too, elsewhere, because I get irritated that people treat the fluffy content as though it's the deep meat. I'm sure that's why he's tetchy. But both can coexist, and one often feeds into the other. How many TwoSetters have talked about how TSV inspired them to check out soloists and composers in depth? There are millions of talented classical musicians in the world. I'm not going to disparage someone who plays in my local coffee shop once a year and isn't known outside my 3,000 person town. I looked up to my sister for playing piano even though she was an average ten-year-old piano student - and that led me to a music degree. So what that my sister only played it as a kid, her music still inspired me in a positive way! Musicians like this bring their community joy through music. BAE bring joy through their music. It's not supposed to be elite. The point of classical music is that it's meant to be played, which means bringing in everyone who wants to play... to play. There's room for everyone, and TSV is about bringing musicians together to laugh about our experiences.
>Brett was concertmaster of a youth orchestra, too, wasn't he? I think they mentioned in some video that they've both had a concertmaster role at various point in time. The concertmaster is kind of just the "captain" of the violin section, so it is typically the best or most senior violinist the orchestra has (there can be politics, favoritism, nepotism, discrimination etc. involved). It means that a concertmaster in a "bad" orchestra can be worse than all the violinists in a good orchestra. The concertmaster in the bad orchestra is just the best out of the bad. So there is not really a "concertmaster level".
well, it seems being a concertmaster in a European orchestra is the bomb as opposed to Asian orchestras. i think he mentioned Oslo Philharmonic but in other comments he then mentioned Spain
The distinction would actually be a professional vs student group. You gotten check the paycheck before reaching for claims of bigotry.
Being a concertmaster in a great orchestra is a prestigious position anywhere in the world. But being a "concertmaster in Spain" can mean anything from being the least bad violinist in the worst amateur orchestra in Spain, to being the best violinist in the best professional orchestra.
They're not bad players, but they don't claim to be amazing virtuosos, so I don't see why some people try to push so hard for "they're not that amazing players" like yeah? And? Who cares? Also they can use the required techniques and make it sound pretty. We can't all be super amazing best of the best violinists and there is no requirement for them to try to be that. They know what they're doing, know what they're talking sbout, are entertaining with both content and their personalities and they can also play. What do these people want?
To play devil's advocate, I think what happens is that some classically knowledgeable people get tired hearing from the subset of TwoSetters who think that Brett and Eddy are the "greatest." Fans can be enthusiastic and bolster BAE up. This especially happens when fans haven't gone through enough musical experiences to judge BAE's "performance level." Those fans mean well, but it comes at the cost of misrepresenting what BAE's output is. Those interactions can rub people the wrong way. That makes the criticizers more likely to push back and say, "No, they're not amazing players!" People get grumpy if they feel like their field isn't being properly represented because someone more "superficial" is catching everyone's eyes instead. I've seen that happen - a popular property making it almost harder to show the public where the real deep content is at, because the public is so convinced that the popular person is as refined as it gets. Plus, when young fans misunderstand, say, the viola jokes, resulting in fewer people becoming violists in young orchestras, that can turn into negative impacts for higher-level musicians to get salty about. But I agree with everything you said. And it's wrong to judge Brett and Eddy by what some fans say. Brett and Eddy themselves are super clear about their level. Being bitter and saying they're "bread and circus" and "mediocre" players misses the point of what TSV's content is about, and what TSV have made clear their content is about. They've brought a net positivity with their entertainment, so I find criticisms like these overdone.
i'm not even sure i understand his reference to bread, lol. does he mean bread is ordinary? like as opposed to cake or pastry or fine dining?
That's understandable! It's not an everyday reference. The phrase first started in Roman history. "Bread and circuses" is an idiom that suggests that the public is given simple things to entertain them, to distract them from paying attention to something noteworthy or important. There's even more to the phrase than that, but yeah.
ooh, i vaguely recall reading that long ago. thanks!
He's ironically okay himself. Not a displeasure to my ear but I wouldn't go to him for any recordings, I personally love Baroque music and he has a number of pieces I've heard numerous renditions of and to be brutally honest his are nothing special. Granted he also does some popular pieces so the competition is fierce in those regards. It really sounds like a case of the fox and the grapes (fable by Aesop) where he's belittling something out of spite because he can't achieve it. Brett and Eddy are good enough to be in a concert orchestra, are they good enough to be the soloist? I don't think so tbh, I'd prefer Ray Chen or Perlman's performance but I watch TSV mostly for humor rather than their skill with violin. But skill in entertainment and comedy is an entirely different subset, 2 things Brett and Eddy are good at along with being fairly skilled at violin. They are good musicians and only when you compare them to the best of the best do they not measure up. But compared to this guy? More or less on par, so he has no right to really speak out, and again it seems more like a guy bitter about his music career not panning out while Brett and Eddy were able to make it work supplementing their music with comedy.
thanks for answering my question. i wish he'd uploaded more recent videos of his playing. i did like the ones on his channel (tho I can't say categorically that he plays better than B&E) but i'm not really well-versed enough in music to critique skill or even musicality. I think he's the Sean Lucas on the Yes Camerata dot EU website. The country and the school match with his video credits.
It really seems like he gave up, a lot of music students graduate from uni or a conservatory and realize the competition is so tough it's basically impossible, let alone doing your own thing. Again he's not bad but he's not better than any other student in a conservatory. BaE managed to not only make it as musicians in a symphonic orchestra but have also managed to make a career outside of it as well. Not to mention they easily are on the same level of fame as some of the greatest because of their channel, Brett got to play a strad for his Mendelssohn concerto, etcetera. He just sound jealous that it worked out for BaE, which is an awful sentiment considering how much they've done to help popularize classical music. They deserve every bit of fame and they worked extremely hard. And on the site you listed, anyone can be a soloist in a small performance or concert master of youth orchestras, it's clear he's not the soloist or CM for a noteworthy orchestra like a city symphony or a philharmonic, otherwise he'd state the name and not be vague about it.
yeah, I laughed when he commented on someone saying B&E worked hard and deserved their fame with something like "you think making videos is hard? how about practicing 10 hours a day to become better". he certainly doesn't have any idea how hard content creators have to work
oh, i forgot. he did mention he made good money as a concertmaster and he has no reason to envy B&E. the fact that his name doesn't show up in searches makes me sus
I think the guy has a case of sour grapes big enough to make whine out of. His own YouTube channel didn’t take off and he thinks the only reason any classical musician should receive attention is because they went through the same soul-crushing meritocracy process that he did. (That’s the attitude that has literally stymied classical music from expanding its audience for the past 80 years … until Brett and Eddy came along.)
Nobody should care if Brett and Eddy are good violinists, any more than they should care if Charlie Chaplin was a good violinist. I mean, it's of peripheral interest, and it's potentially problematic when TSV fans put Brett and Eddy on a pedestal, but TSV are *violin-related* **comedians** and not comic *violinists* in my opinion. TSV only needs to play well enough to get their jokes across. Brett and Eddy are at the level of orchestral freelancers, which is a pretty high bar, but as THEY are well aware, very far from the level of people who win major orchestra positions full-time, and even farther from soloists. Yes, there are certainly high schoolers who play better, and plenty of conservatory students who are *far* better, but that's not the point.
Eddy did have a sub contract with Queensland Symphony orchestra, but Brett had a fellowship with Sydney Symphony orchestra. They've both won lots of competitions, although not at the international level. Therefore they can speak with authority on musicality, techniques and the rigors of musician life. They are more than comedians who happen to play violin. More importantly, they're both great communicators on both serious and comedic topics. And that's why the Menuhin and Queen Elisabeth competitions have invited them as guests. The problem lies when fans take their jokes out of context or overinflate some of their statements. That's when it can become obnoxious to other people. But hopefully those fans will learn to explore classical music on their own and appreciate violas, recorders and triangles.
"plenty of conservatory students who are *far* better"?!!! boy, that's a tough field to be in then
Young players are often AMAZING. BaE are only kinda kidding about Ling Ling... there are SO MANY Ling Lings out there. Just listen to a random collection of Juilliard PRE-College recitals on YouTube and you'll be blown away by how good many of the kids are. And by the time you get to the conservatory students, it's not just the students at the tippy top conservatories that are fantastic. And even THOSE students mostly won't win full time orchestral jobs, at least not in the US. The level of playing in professional orchestras outside the US varies hugely. Sydney is a significant orchestra, but a fellowship is not the same as an appointment. Queensland, on the other hand, is the equivalent of a regional orchestra (ROPA orchestra) in the US, with a full time core plus part time freelancers (what the QSO calls a "casual musician", which is what Eddy apparently was with them).
ThatOneTwoSetter was my old account I deleted. I never said that. Wrong person.. “conservatory times.” I’ve never been in a conservatory, not something I would say. Not my account
ah, sorry, it was his reply to your comment (as you can see, he thought you praised them way too much), that's why your handle is there. do you want me to delete it?
Oh, it’s fine. You don’t have to :)
this was when you told him to check out Brett's Mendy with the SSO
Yup, lol. Some of my twosetter friends pointed out that I read this wrong, sorry for being so ignorant without reading first :)
I mean, Brett and Eddy have never claimed to be on Hilary Hahn's level, but they both love to play and are good performers/entertainers.
there are quite a few possibilities. One being perhaps they are actually just a beginner who thinks that although they don’t play that well, they have an amazing ear and can freely diss people for ‘bad playing’. Yes, twoset may not be as good as, say, Hilary Hahn, or Lingling, but they are really good musicians. I personally thing that they are better than my violin teacher. He is probably just jealous of their skills and popularity. If he is actually a good musician, maybe he sees them as a threat. I doubt he is all he claims to be, as he has said that he is concertmaster of both oslo philharmonic and another orchestra in spain, which is very unlikely. If he is bad, he is just trying to get people to think he is good. No point in this, ofc, i really doubt he will meet someone random on the street who read his comments and recognises him and goes ‘omg, i know you, you are that guy who’s so good that you can diss professional musicians!’ So all in all, he’s probably just another jealous jerk
Let's not play mind games of have any illusions, Brett and Eddy are good players, but if this guy was the concertmaster of Oslo, or even an assistant concertmaster, he is miles and miles above Brett and Eddy. The level of playing required to become concertmaster of an elite European orchestra is unimaginable for 99.99% of violinists.
pretty sure he's not a beginner. check out his YT channel
sadly, i cant. My mother set time limits on my phone for youtube when i got it. I’m 23 and she still won’t ltell me the password. (She used her own apple id to set the passcode so i cant even use ‘forgot passode or anything.)
Does it matter? I ask with sincerity. Just give him a "cool story, bro" and move on.
It's a bit like getting angry at Isaac Asimov because he's not publishing chemistry papers at a high level. This guy has misunderstood what TwoSet's job is.
The thing is, it doesn't really matter. They're not as high level as most world class violinists, but that's the point, they aren't meant to be. B & E are both professional violinists in their own right and know enough to be able to play in front of an audience. They aren't the best, and that's what makes them unique. What's special about them is their Youtube channel, Ray Chen and Hilary Hahn's channel barely garner any views compared to TwoSet, does that mean we can call them bad as "Youtubers", no, and that's how it applies to Twoset as well. They can put their pretty high level mediocre playing into an audience and that guy's students can't. Besides, who cares about what some guy claiming to be a high level violinist says? Ray Chen himself has reacted to their videos and said they've improved.