Violin Concerto (Sibelius)

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The Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47, is an instrumental concerto by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius for violin and orchestra .

Work description

The work consists of three movements :

  1. Allegro moderato
  2. Adagio di molto
  3. Allegro ma non tanto

The first movement in sonata form begins unexpectedly quietly. Only the 1st and 2nd violins come in and play a meditative eighth note movement in pianissimo with mutes , above which the solo violin rises with a simple motif. The main theme is followed by a first small solo cadenza before the orchestra intones the secondary movement . The role of the implementation is then taken up by a large cadenza. The recapitulation varies widely the themes presented.

The lyrical second movement in three-part song form is again determined by a main theme, here deeply romantic.

Finally, the exuberantly ecstatic third movement, described by the composer as danse macabre , deals with two different themes and, with its expressive virtuosity, is one of the most distinctive finals in violin literature.

The performance lasts approx. 30 minutes.

occupation

Solo violin - orchestra: 2 flutes , 2 oboes , 2 clarinets , 2 bassoons , 4 horns , 2 trumpets , 3 trombones , timpani , strings

history

Sibelius composed the first version of the concert in 1903 at the suggestion of violinist Willy Burmester . It was intended for this and was to be premiered in Berlin . However, Sibelius moved the premiere to Helsinki for financial reasons , so that Burmester was unable to play the premiere due to other scheduling obligations. The first performance took place on February 8, 1904 in Helsinki with Viktor Nováček as soloist under the direction of the composer. Not least because the soloist was technically not up to the work, the concert fell through with the audience and criticism.

Sibelius then revised the work in the years 1904–1905, shortening the finale and the first movement in particular (by a total of around five minutes) and greatly reducing the excessive passage work. The new version was premiered on October 19, 1905 in Berlin with Carl Halir and the Hofkapelle Berlin under the direction of Richard Strauss . Willy Burmester was so upset that he was passed over again that he refused to ever play the concerto, whereupon Sibelius transferred the dedication of the concert to the Hungarian prodigy violinist Franz von Vecsey . The premiere of the new version was more successful than the first attempt, and in the period that followed the work slowly gained acceptance, especially since important violinists such as Jascha Heifetz and David Oistrach added it to their repertoire. For decades, only the new version of the concert was played until the original version by Leonidas Kavakos and the Sinfonia Lahti was performed again for the first time in the early 1990s .

Sibelius' Violin Concerto was written in the phase of his early symphonic work between the 2nd and 3rd symphonies . It owes its fascination and popularity, which continues to this day, to its late romantic style combined with modern Scandinavian sound aesthetics. With the violin concertos by Prokofiev , Shostakovich , Berg , Bartók and Britten, it is one of the most important violin concertos of the twentieth century.

literature

  • Jochem Wolff: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor op. 47. In: Wolf Konold (Ed.): Lexicon Orchestermusik Romantik S – Z. Piper, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7957-8228-7 , pp. 839-841.
  • Christoph Schlüren: From wild virtuoso concerto to classic - for the first time both versions of the violin concerto in the Sibelius Complete Edition , in: neue musikzeitung , No. 4 (2015) p. 13

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andrea Lauber: Jean Sibelius: Violin Concerto. Bayerischer Rundfunk, archived from the original on April 7, 2013 ; Retrieved April 3, 2015 .

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