And now for something completely different...

...a piece generally considered to be the greatest technical challenge ever written for the violin. There is a marvellous story of the mighty Maxim Vengerov at some record industry lunch being asked if he'd play something, and simply hauling out the old Strad, giving it a cursory tune up, and launching this on his unsuspecting audience. Watch and weep:



The curious can download the sheet music free here. The crazy bit at 5:05 is the Poco piu vivo on p.31.