1st violin concerto (Shostakovich)

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The Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 77 , was composed by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1947/48 and is the first of two violin concertos by the composer. It was first performed in 1955 and first published in 1956 as op. 99. Shostakovich dedicated the concert to his friend, the violinist David Oistrach .

Emergence

Shostakovich began composing the 1st Violin Concerto on July 21, 1947 and finished it on March 24, 1948. He gave the violin concerto the opus number 77. As a result of the Cold War and a tightening cultural policy in the Soviet Union under Andrei Zhdanov , it came on March 20 February 1948 on a decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU against “formalism and foreignness” in music. Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev , Aram Chatschaturjan and other Soviet composers were mentioned by name. They were accused of “formalistic distortions and anti-democratic tendencies that are alien to the Soviet people and their artistic taste”. Shostakovich then lost his teaching post at the Leningrad Conservatory and in Moscow. So the violin concerto stayed in the drawer for seven years. Shostakovich's commitment to Jewish folk music, which is shown in the violin concerto and especially in the song cycle "From Jewish Folk Poetry" op. 79 composed in 1948, did not allow these works to be performed during the anti-Zionist campaign of 1948, and so both were initially unpublished . Only two years after Stalin's death (1953), with the onset of the so-called thaw period in the Soviet Union, Shostakovich subjected the composition of his violin concerto to a minor revision, to which he had already made a minor revision for the part of the solo violin, as in the spring of 1948 when composing David Oistrach called in. On October 29, 1955, the 1st Violin Concerto was premiered in the Great Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic by David Oistrakh with the Leningrad Philharmonic under the direction of Yevgeny Maravinsky . In 1956 the work was published under the opus number 99, which was changed against Shostakovich's will.

Work description

Instrumentation : solo violin, 3 flutes, 3 oboes, 3 clarinets, 3 bassoons - 4 horns, 1 tuba - timpani, percussion ( tambourine , tam-tam , xylophone ), 2 harps, celesta , strings.

Sentence sequence :

  1. Nocturne (Moderato - Meno mosso - Tempo I)
  2. Scherzo (Allegro - Poco più mosso - Allegro - Poco più mosso)
  3. Passacaglia (Andante) - Cadenza
  4. Burlesque (Allegro con brio - Presto)

With this sequence of movements , the work deviates from the traditional three-movement scheme of a solo concerto with a fast first movement, a slow middle movement and a fast final movement. The sentence names “Nocturne” and “Burlesque” correspond less to a solo concert than to a romantic symphony . The concert is therefore referred to by some as a “symphony with an obbligato violin”.

The first movement , Nocturne (Moderato) (approx. 11 '), has a gloomy, depressing mood and has a more chamber music- like effect . “During the concert it appears like an independent prologue.” The nocturne is like a “lonely song, written in the dark of night”. The sentence “develops in a broad melodic flow, in calm movement, there are no contrasting themes here. Main and secondary themes complement each other. ”The violin initially takes up the 1st theme of the 1st movement in the lower strings, but then tries to free itself from this dark pull and becomes more and more entangled in it. Celesta sounds lead to inhospitable, distant dream worlds. That the composer himself is affected is hinted at by the sequence of notes D - Es - C - H, the cipher of his name (D. Sch.), Which appears again and again later.

The 2nd movement , a Scherzo (Allegro) (approx. 7 '), is in great contrast to the 1st movement. The Scherzo is very fast and places the highest demands on the solo violinist in terms of playing technique. The movement is also extremely complex in terms of composition. An interpretation as a (not pure) sonata form is helpful:

  • Exposure: main theme . The movement begins in B flat minor, the main theme (theme A), which is played at the beginning (flute and bass clarinet), is based on the prologue of Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunow : Tsar Boris came to power illegally and perpetrated it atrocities on behalf of the people, he sees himself as the executor of the people's will. So it makes sense to understand topic A as a Stalin topic. Theme B is a modification of a theme that Shostakovich often uses to depict unscrupulousness and violence, for example in his opera Lady Macbeth . The Stalin theme (theme A), accompanied cautiously on the violin at the beginning of the movement, violence theme (theme B), is overwhelmed by the violence theme and mirrored by it in fortissimo on the solo violin. Both topics are linked and repeated several times.
  • Exposure: secondary topic . Then the key changes to B major and the oboe performs the cipher D - Eb - C - B, it is also taken over by the solo violin, but disappears again in the vortex, the beat becomes faster, the note type goes to b -Moll back and A and B topics return and finally merge into one.
  • Transition from exposure to implementation: epilogue . Suddenly the tone type changes to E minor and a Jewish dance sounds in the woodwinds and on the xylophone. It is a grotesque, ever increasing demonic dance against death, "in which you don't know whether you are dancing with violence or against violence." The solo violin tries to dance along, but seems undecided. The strings interfere like security guards, but the solo violin does not give up until the violent theme (theme B) seems to dissuade the solo violin in a fortissimo. Defiantly, the solo violin starts again after a short break and plays the Jewish melody completely.
  • Execution in joint form . The beat slows down again and the type of note is back to the beginning of B flat minor. The Stalin and violence themes are initially heard on an equal footing with the Shostakovich theme, the Jewish dance can be heard in fragments. But towards the end the Stalin topic (topic A) and the violence topic (topic B) dominate: They assert themselves and seem to want to force the other two topics into their rhythm.
  • Recapitulation : The beat becomes faster, the type of note changes to B flat major. In the midst of dissonances, the Shostakovich and Jewish dance themes merge, but they cannot hold on and are suppressed when themes A and B set in again. That ends the sentence.

Interestingly, the Shostakovich and Jewish dance themes merge into one before disappearing. Musicologists like Braun and Arnemann interpret this as an identification of Shostakovich with the suppression of Jewish culture under Stalin.

The 3rd movement (approx. 12 ') consists of a passacaglia (andante) and a subsequent large solo cadenza on the violin. It is the central and most important movement of the concert. The Basso ostinato of the Passacaglia progresses majestically but relentlessly and, with its knocking motif, is reminiscent of a “fate motif”. The ostinato motif turns out to be a variant of the violence motif (theme B from the Scherzo). The solo violin plays around this ostinato motif with a lament "whose small-scale motifs are reminiscent of traditional synagogue music". “At the climax of the movement, the violin sings, the soul of the concert, the ostinato” - she cannot escape the overpowering Passacaglia theme. As in the first sentence, “a general encompasses the individual. No matter how you turn and turn, you don't get out of the world unscathed. ”Only when the Passacaglia has faded away in the orchestra and the violin has ended with a sigh does the solo violin begin with a meditative cadenza, initially groping and searching , then more and more free and virtuoso. The extent and content of the cadenza almost correspond to a separate sentence. "Here echoes of the moods and images of Adagio, Scherzo and Passacaglia come back to life": the D - Es - C - H motif reappears and at the climax the Jewish dance of death sounds like a scream in a very high register. Here "the fear of an entire epoch fevered".

4th movement , Burlesque (Allegro con brio - Presto) (approx. 5 '): Attacca transitions the solo cadenza into the 4th movement in an orchestral outburst. The violin is brusquely torn from its almost cocky mood and has to find its way back to reality. A grotesque dance develops, in which one gets the impression that “everything is getting out of control.” In its superimposed happiness, frenzy, exuberance and with its popular Russian melodies, this burlesque stands in contrast to the previous movements. "Sometimes you can hear Skomorochen (wandering musicians) playing" and the orchestra repeatedly produces disturbing drone sounds. The theme of Passacaglia reappears, but this time it is overblown in a burlesque manner. “Doom weighs on the gears.” “It's a burlesque of horror. Shostakovich achieves this through the rhythm that never stops. ”For Sigrid Neef, this sentence includes“ two musical and two spiritual layers. It is not a nostalgic, glorified folk festival, but an official celebration. And yet it is also a festival of the people. What is meant is a dance in which the solemn festivities are reinterpreted from within. Dancing here becomes a modality to resist the world, to bring oneself into harmony and to set one's own center in circles. "

reception

Isaak Glikman, a friend of Shostakovich's, reports about the premiere on October 29, 1955 in Leningrad: “The long-awaited concert took place on October 29, 1955 and was a huge success. The finale was repeated at the request of the audience. ”The first performance in western countries, again with David Oistrach on violin, took place on December 29, 1955 at Carnegie Hall in New York with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Dimitri Mitropoulos instead of. The work was largely hushed up in the Soviet press. Only an article by David Oistrach in the magazine “Sowjetskaya musyka” in July 1956 broke the spell: “It has been six months since the world premiere of Shostakovich's new violin concerto, but to this day no article or review of this outstanding work has appeared . Of course, silence is also a kind of criticism. "

Since then, the work has been one of Shostakovich's best-known and is played far more frequently than his Violin Concerto No. 2 in C sharp minor, op. 129 from 1967, which is also dedicated to David Oistrakh.

Discography (selection)

  • David Oistrach plays Shostakovich, Violin Concerto No. 1, op. 99, The Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, Eugen Mrawinsky, conductor, label: A Monitor Collections Series Compact Disc, MCD 62014
  • Shostakovich, Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2, Maxim Vengerov, violin and the London Symphony Orchestra, conductor: Mstislav Rostropovich (1994), label: Elatus, Warner Classics 2002
  • Shostakovich, violin concertos 1 & 2, Christian Tetzlaff, violin and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor: John Storgårds, label: Ondine, 2014
  • Dmitri Schostakowitsch: Concerto for violin and orchestra No. 1 in A minor, op.77, Daniel Hope, violin, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London, conductor: Maxim Schostakowitsch, label: WEA International

For a detailed discography see: and

References and comments

  1. ↑ Krzisztof Meyer, Schostakowitsch, His life, his work, his time, Bergisch Gladbach 1995, p. 590
  2. ↑ Detlef Gojowy, Schostakowitsch, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1983, p. 76
  3. ↑ Since only a few of his works were performed, he had to give concerts as a pianist in the provinces, and his wife resumed her work in her scientific profession. See Detlef Gojowy, p. 84
  4. ↑ cf. Detlef Gojowy, p. 97
  5. ↑ See Sigrid Neef, Tanzen gegen den Tod, in: Program of the Munich Philharmonic from September 10, 2014, p. 2, URL: https://www.mphil.de/fileadmin/redaktion/Saisonfolder/Saisonfolder_1415/Programmhefte_1415/Hefte_1415 /Mphil_Bychkov1_www.pdf
  6. ↑ See Sigrid Neef, p. 2 and Krzisztof Meyer, p. 380
  7. ↑ Dmitri Shostakovich, Sikorski Musikverlage Hamburg 2011, updated 2014, 2nd Edition, p. 132, URL: http://www.sikorski.de/media/files/1/12/190/249/336/8953/schostakowitsch_werkverzeichnis.pdf
  8. ↑ for example: Sigrid Neef, p. 3 and Krzisztof Meyer 1995, p. 379
  9. ^ A b David Oistrach's review in "Sowjetskaja Musyka" 1956, No. 7, in: Karl Schönewolf (ed.), Concert Book, Part 2, 19th to 20th Century, Berlin 1960, p. 616 f.
  10. ↑ Bernd Feuchtner, Dimitri Schostakowitsch, Kassel 2002, p. 127
  11. ↑ See Sigrid Neef, p. 3 f.
  12. ↑ on D-Es-CH see: DSCH (motif) or more detailed and with audio file: en: DSCH motif
  13. ↑ Dethlef Arnemann: Jewish music in the work of Dmitrij Schostakowitsch . Master's thesis, University of Hamburg, 1989.
  14. ↑ Sigrid Neef, p. 4
  15. ↑ Joachim Braun: Jews and Jewish Elements in Soviet Music , Tel-Aviv 1978, p. 152
  16. ↑ Dethlef Arnemann: The Jewish Dance in Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto Op. 77 , in: Shostakovich Studies, Volume 3 , Berlin 2001, p. 239.
  17. ↑ The bass ostinato motif of the Passacaglia reminds musically and in its function as a violent motif of the bass motif in the Passacaglia of Benjamin Britten's "Peter Grimes" (1945).
  18. ↑ a b c d Bernd Feuchtner, p. 151
  19. ↑ Sigrid Neef, p. 6
  20. ↑ a b David Oistrach, in: Karl Schönewolf (ed.), P. 618
  21. ↑ The violinist Bob Hope on the 1st violin concerto by Shostakovich, in: BR, "The strong piece - musicians explain masterpiece", Shostakovich - violin concerto No. 1 - May 5, 2015 http://cdn-storage.br.de/ MUJIuUOVBwQIbtChb6OHu7ODifWH_-bP / _- OS / 52N652Fg / 150505_0000_Das-stark-Stueck_Schostakowitsch --- Violin Concerto No.1.mp3
  22. ↑ Bernd Feuchtner, p. 127
  23. ↑ Bob Hope, in: BR
  24. ↑ Sigrid Neef, p. 8
  25. ↑ a b Sigrid Neef, p. 9
  26. ↑ http://dsch1975.web.fc2.com/work/vncon1e.html
  27. ↑ http://www.capriccio-kulturforum.de/index.php?thread/5516-schostakowitsch-violinkonzerte-nr-1-und-2/