The Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53 (B.108), is a concerto for violin and orchestra composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1879. It was premiered in Prague in 1883 by František Ondříček, who also gave the Vienna and London premieres. Today it remains an important work in the violin repertoire.
The concerto's structure is the classical three movements of fast-slow-fast.
Allegro ma non troppo
Adagio ma non troppo
Finale: Allegro giocoso ma non troppo
Dvořák was inspired to write the concerto after meeting Joseph Joachim in 1878, and composed the work with the intention of dedicating it him. However, when he finished the concerto in 1879, Joachim became skeptical about it. Joachim was a strict classicist and objected, inter alia, to Dvořák's abrupt truncation of the first movement's orchestral tutti. Joachim also didn't like the fact that the recapitulation was cut short and that it led directly to the slow second movement. It is also assumed that he was upset with the persistent repetition found in the third movement. However, Joachim never said anything outright and instead claimed to be editing the solo part. He never actually performed the piece in public.
Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, is his last large orchestral work. It forms an important part of the violin repertoire and is one of the most popular and most frequently performed violin concertos of all time. A typical performance lasts just under half an hour.
Mendelssohn originally proposed the idea of the violin concerto to Ferdinand David, a close friend and then concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Although conceived in 1838, the work took another six years to complete and was not premiered until 1845. During this time, Mendelssohn maintained a regular correspondence with David, who gave him many suggestions. The work itself was one of the foremost violin concertos of the Romantic era and was influential on many other composers.
Although the concerto consists of three movements in a standard fast–slow–fast structure and each movement follows a traditional form, the concerto was innovative and included many novel features for its time. Distinctive aspects include the almost immediate entrance of the violin at the beginning of the work (rather than following an orchestral preview of the first movement's major themes, as was typical in Classical-era concertos) and the through-composed form of the concerto as a whole, in which the three movements are melodically and harmonically connected and played attacca (each movement immediately following the previous one).
Samuel Barber completed his Violin Concerto, Op. 14, in 1939. It is a work in three movements, lasting about 22 minutes.
History
In 1939, Philadelphia industrialist Samuel Simeon Fels commissioned Barber to write a violin concerto for Fels' ward, Iso Briselli, a graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music the same year as Barber, 1934. The Barber biographies written by Nathan Broder (1954) and Barbara B. Heyman (1992) discuss the genesis of the concerto during the period of the violin concerto's commission and subsequent year leading up to the first performance. Heyman interviewed Briselli and others familiar with the history in her publication. In late 2010, previously unpublished letters written by Fels, Barber, and Albert Meiff (Briselli's violin coach in that period) from the Samuel Simeon Fels Papers archived at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania became available to the public.
Barber accepted his advance and went to Switzerland to work on the concerto. Barber started working on the first two movements in Switzerland during the summer of 1939. He hoped to complete the concerto in the early fall to meet the October 1st deadline. His plans were interrupted, however, due to the impending war—all Americans were warned to leave Europe. In late August, he went to Paris and then took a ship to the USA, arriving in early September. After spending a short time with his family in West Chester, PA, he went to the Pocono Mountains to continue working on the concerto.
Ludwig van Beethoven composed a Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, in 1806. Its first performance by Franz Clement was unsuccessful and for some decades the work languished in obscurity, until revived in 1844 by Joseph Joachim. Since then it has become one of the best-known violin concertos.
Genesis
Beethoven had previously written a number of pieces for violin and orchestra. At some point in 1790–2, before his musical maturity, he began a Violin Concerto in C, of which only a fragment of the first movement survives. Whether the work, or even the first movement, had ever been completed is not known. However, even if complete, it was neither performed nor published. Later in the 1790s, Beethoven had completed two Romances for violin - first the Romance in F and later the Romance in G.
These works show a strong influence from the French school of violin playing, exemplified by violinists such as Giovanni Battista Viotti, Pierre Rode and Rodolphe Kreutzer. The two Romances, for instance, are in a similar style to slow movements of concerti by Viotti. This influence can also be seen in the D major Concerto; the 'martial' opening with the beat of the timpani follows the style of French music at the time, while the prevalence of figures in broken sixths and broken octaves closely resembles elements of compositions by Kreutzer and Viotti.
... piece, dazzling audiences with his energetic performance of Dvorâk’s ViolinConcerto ... Dvorak’s Violin Concerto was heavily inspired by Slavic folk music, granting the piece a joyous, pastoral style.
A pleasure to let go and be swayed by all those notes on four strings, rising and falling between allegro and adagio, andante and allegro vivo in Dvorak’s cello concerto in B minor. Dvorak is not easy to play, whether violin, viola, cello, or piano ... .
The chief conductor of the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie makes his Cleveland debut with a meat-and-potatoes evening featuring major works by Dvorak and the TchaikovskyViolinConcerto, as performed by the supremely talented Augustin Hadelich.
No concert containing Dvorak’s New World Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s ViolinConcerto would be a leading contender in a contest for unusual programming ... but soulful pursuit of the Dvorak slowSponsored.
5, the surprise is to hear concertmaster David Kim playing Tchaikovsky’s ViolinConcerto for the first time for SPAC audiences ... And musically, it’s not like his violin concerto ... Violin Concerto No.
LA PHIL, DVORAK, BRUCKNER – I dig most of what Dvořák wrote, but this violin concerto is royalty, straight out of the traditions and excellence of Beethoven and Brahms.
For ticket information, visit live.stanford.edu/frost. Here’s the performance schedule. ... Friday, July 7, 7.30PM ... Alexi Kenney, violin ... SIBELIUS / ViolinConcerto in D minor, Op. 47. DVORAK / Symphony No ... RACHMANINOFF / Piano Concerto No ... Gil Shaham, violin.
Russian-born composer Rachmaninov’s PianoConcertoNo 2 has been voted Britain’s favourite piece of classical music for the first time in 10 years... Rachmaninov – Piano Concerto No 22 ... Bruch – Violin Concerto No 115.
This premiere was performed alongside Dvorak’s 6th symphony and Glazunov’s violin concerto ... sectionals with very challenging repertoire, which included Tchaikovsky’s 5th, Beethoven’sPianoConcerto No.
