Violin Concerto (Dvořák)

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Antonín Dvořák, photograph from 1886

The Violin Concerto in A minor Op. 53 is the only violin concerto by the Bohemian composer Antonín Dvořák .

Emergence

Dvořák began composing in 1879 at the suggestion of his publisher Fritz Simrock , who asked the composer about the success of Dvořák's “ Slavonic Dances ” (op. 46): “Would you like to write me a violin concerto? Quite original, rich in cantilenas and for good violinists? A word, please! ”.

In the same year Dvořák got to know the violinist Joseph Joachim , dedicated the concert to him and in late summer 1879 sent him a first version for assessment. Joachim immediately made some suggestions for changes to the layout and violin. Dvořák then, as he wrote to Simrock, “reworked the entire concerto, I haven't kept a single measure”. This time it was only two years later, in 1882, that Joachim reacted by shortening the work and making changes to the instrumentation.

Sentence names

  1. Allegro ma non troppo
  2. Adagio ma non troppo
  3. Finale: Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo

To the music

Although the first movement in A minor does not have the usual form and extension of other first movements in romantic violin concertos, it still offers an exuberant wealth of highly virtuoso passages on the one hand and very vocal sections on the other. It is a combination of sonata form and rondo . The main theme presented by the orchestral tutti is of a Slavic character and is taken up by the solo violin in the fifth bar. It is followed by a cantable secondary theme. Following is the implementation , which (unlike in Dvorak's Piano Concerto contains) little motivic and thematic work. The first movement ends with only a rudimentary recapitulation and flows into the second movement with a 13-measure transition without interruption.

This slow movement is actually the main part of the concert. It is in F major, has an unusually opulent length and a singing, song-like character. This idyll is only interrupted twice by dramatic interjections.

The third movement is both a sonata movement and a rondo. In brilliant A major, a furiant draws pictures of a boisterous festival. A melancholy Dumka in D minor intervenes for a moment before the Furiant returns and the movement ends in a virtuoso coda.

effect

Joseph Joachim initially performed the concert internally at the Berlin Conservatory , of which he was director. There was never a public performance of the concert by Joachim; the reasons for this are unknown. Instead, Dvořák's friend František Ondříček took over the solo part in the premiere on October 14, 1883 at the Prague National Theater ; The conductor was Mořic Anger . The first performance was just as successful as a later performance of the concert on December 2, 1883 in Vienna.

Discography (selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Klaus Schweizer and Arnold Werner-Jensen: Reclams concert guide Philipp Reclam jun. Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-15-010793-5 , p. 519.

literature

  • Christoph Hahn, Siegmar Hohl (ed.): Bertelsmann concert guide , Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh / Munich 1993, ISBN 3-570-10519-9
  • Harenberg piano music guide , Harenberg Kommunikation, Dortmund, 1999, ISBN 3-611-00679-3

Web links