what is this piece of Russian violin music?

[Christopher]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLlPcMgHxTQ

Does anyone know the name and composer of this piece of music?  I hear it played a lot by busking violinists especially around the touristy areas of Moscow, but have never been able to identify it.  It sounds like a wild gypsy dance....

The youtube link here is to the wedding banquet scene from the movie The Scarlet Empress, a very over-the-top but great fun 1930s film with Marlene Dietrich as Catherine the Great, directed by Josef von Sternberg. Incidentally the movie uses a fast-moving series of adaptations of music by composers such as Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and an interesting orchestration (with chorus) of Anton Rubinstein's piece for solo piano "Reve angelique" (op.10, No.22) - see here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srurhFxeZrg .

[eschiss1]

are you sure it's Russian? It sounds (a bit?) like part of the end of Enescu's first Romanian Rhapsody, though I could be very mistaken. (I'll need to do a real comparison a bit later )

[Christopher]

no I'm not sure it's Russian at all actually! It was just an assumption, based on the fact I hear it so much around Moscow, and it's in that film about Catherine the Great...

[Alan Howe]

A Google search...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025746/soundtrack
...reveals that the piece is:

"Violin Composition"
(uncredited)
Written by Josef von Sternberg
Played at the wedding feast

...Sternberg being the director of the film. Hmmmm....

[Christopher]

IMDB is not always accurate I have found.  I seriously doubt Sternberg wrote it - The Scarlet Empress is not a popular or well-known movie in Russia so I doubt a piece of music from it would have found its way to the buskers!

[Christopher]

are you sure it's Russian? It sounds (a bit?) like part of the end of Enescu's first Romanian Rhapsody, though I could be very mistaken. (I'll need to do a real comparison a bit later )

It's very similar in style and tempo to Enescu's Rhapsody No.1, but it is not our piece.  Have just checked! And I checked No.2 as well for good measure.

[Alan Howe]

This source...
http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=3877
says:

Sternberg states that he wrote a violin composition for one of the scenes and conducted the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra in playing the film's score.

Again, hmmmmm........

[Mark Thomas]

But it does seem to be bespoke to the film. The violinist is certainly appears to be playing in time to the msuic.

[Christopher]

This source...
http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=3877
says:

Sternberg states that he wrote a violin composition for one of the scenes and conducted the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra in playing the film's score.

Again, hmmmmm........

Aaah, well now that is interesting.  I may need to retract my previous certainty that it wasn't Sternberg...!  Good find!  As there is so much other classical in the movie (Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Wagner) I had assumed that this was also an adaptation of something.

[Alan Howe]

I'm still not altogether sure about this - Sternberg's compositional ability might bear further investigation...

[eschiss1]

Any relation to Constantin v Sternberg, I wonder?