Classical Music | Violin Music

Recorded on 10/29/2011, uploaded on 10/29/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

It is a strange fact that so many masterworks of classical music, beloved by audiences today and upheld as examples of their respective composer’s skillful craft, were failures, or at best only coolly received, at their premieres; one has only to think of such masterpieces as Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake or The Nutcracker ballets. Ludwig van Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major, op. 61, a cornerstone of the modern repertoire, is also just such a piece. Composed at the height of his heroic “middle” period in 1806, the Violin Concerto followed such works as the Eroica Symphony, the Fourth Piano Concerto, and the Appassionata Sonata. It was also his next to last contribution to the concerto genre; only the Piano Concerto No. 5, the “Emperor,” would follow.

Though the Violin Concerto was his only concerto for the instrument, Beethoven was not unfamiliar in combining the solo violin with the orchestra. He composed two romances, contemporaneous with his first two symphonies, featuring the violin. The instrument also played a prominent role in the as-of-yet unperformed Triple Concerto. Yet, these works were rather like precursors, or perhaps “study pieces” in which the composer could gain his footing, so to speak, and not be weighted down by trivial matters in the process of creativity.

Beethoven composed the concerto for Franz Clement, a leading violinist of the day and who had previously worked with him on Fidelio. It was, however, not well received at its premiere on December 23, 1806, and it would be two years before the work appeared in print. For the next several decades, the Violin Concerto would go virtually unperformed until being taken up by a 12-year-old Joseph Joachim in 1844. With Felix Mendelssohn at the helm of the orchestra, Joachim gave a successful performance of the concerto and has since remained a staple of the violin repertoire. Interestingly, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto would also serve as an inspiration for Johannes Brahms’s only concerto for the instrument, conspicuously in the key of D major, and which was also premiered by Joachim after a performance of Beethoven’s.

The Violin Concerto is set out on the grand and heroic scale expected of Beethoven. The first movement itself is expansive, running over twenty-five minutes in length owing to its combination of the Classical ritornello tradition with Beethoven’s penchant for expansive and dramatic development. Interestingly, and no doubt startling at its premiere, the opening sonata allegro makes copious use of the timpani. Indeed, the frequent prominence of the instrument prompted a somewhat derisive nickname—the “Kettledrum Concerto.” On the other hand, the beautiful G major Larghetto middle movement is a respite from the dramatic workings of the opening Allegro and abounds in gentle lyricism. The finale, a blithe rondo, turns to a folk-like charm in its simple, and mostly diatonic, opening refrain which throughout overflows with rustic energy.      Joseph DuBose

Istituto Europeo di Musica. Servizio di filodiffusione di musica classica del sabato e della domenica

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Beethoven Violin Concerto D major (III mov.)

Vadim Repin,

Valery Gergiev

Kirov Orchestra