The violin is such a beautiful expressive instrument, joy,love,despair
are just three of the many tales it holds. If you learn to appreciate
the passion and the many moods of the instrument perhaps you will know
more of the violinist.

I wish to find details of CDs of Solo Violin Music that convey the
themes of love, joy, sorrow & despair.
Thank you
Howard
Hmcellardyke@aol.com

I'm a violinist, and Joshua Bell is an artist I admire.  His 2003
album, "Romance of the Violin," may be just what you are looking for. 
Check it out at amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000DG06L/002-3061249-3253669?v=glance

A nice person has made an extensive website of violin links called
Connie's Violin Page at http://www.geocities.com/conniesunday/ which
you should see. One of the features is a list of 100 must-hear
classical violin pieces.

I particularly like jazz violinists and especially delight in
performances by Stephane Grappelli (bio:
http://www.jazzreview.com/articledetails.cfm?ID=165 )or Jean Luc Ponty
(official site: http://www.ponty.com/)

I find the harp to be another beautiful and emotionally evocative
instrument you might enjoy. Also, wonderful stringed instruments from
other cultures can be played violin-like with or without a bow, such
as the erhu and zhong hu and ge-hu and gao-hu and matoquin of China;
the kemence of Armenia; the kebak kemane of Turkey; the bolon, kora,
and n'goni of Mali; the dra-nyen of Tibet; the tar of Azerbijian; the
goje of Ghana; the k'ni and dan tam and dan day and dan nhi of
Vietnam; the kora of Senegal; the morin khuur of Mongolia; the
shamisen of Japan; the esraj of India; the berimbao of Brazil. See
pictures of all these at the Worldwide Musical Instument list at
http://www.iartsandcrafts.com/worldwide_musical_instruments.html