Violin Concerto (Tchaikovsky)

The Violin Concerto in D major op 35 is the only violin concerto by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It is one of the best known of all violin concertos.

Formation

Tchaikovsky wrote the concerto in March and April of 1878 in Clarens, one located on Lake Geneva Winzerort. There, Tchaikovsky was recovering from depression and a severe nervous breakdown, which had been triggered by the unhappy marriage with the Conservatory student Antonina Miljukova and his repressed homosexuality. The positive effect of his stay was reflected in the concert, in which newfound zest for life manifested.

Was supported Tchaikovsky, who was not a practicing violin player himself, the violinist Josef Kotek, Tchaikovsky 's former composition student. The composition work was completed after three weeks, although Tchaikovsky replaced the originally planned funds set by the process known as " canzonetta " Andante. From the originally planned middle movement later became the Méditation for Piano and Violin, Op 42

Premiere

Initially, Tchaikovsky had planned as a soloist Leopold Auer, who held but for the concert " unviolinistisch " and unplayable and therefore refused. Kotek's reputation was deemed too small to play during a premiere can. So it finally came, almost two years later, premiered on December 4, 1881 by Adolph Brodsky, who was able to convince Hans Richter and his Vienna Philharmonic on the qualities of the work. Brodsky was also premiered the Violin Concerto on August 20, 1882 in Moscow. Leopold Auer later changed his opinion and was a great supporter of this work.

Construction

The cast consists of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings and solo violin.

First Set

The first sentence surprised by the fact that the cadence already follows the implementation and not, as usual in the past, the recapitulation. Another special feature is that the introductory orchestral melody - as in Tchaikovsky's B flat minor Piano Concerto - the whole plant does not recur.

Second sentence

About the second sentence, which is marked by melancholy play the violin, Tchaikovsky wrote to his pen pal Nadezhda von Meck: "The canzonetta is downright gorgeous. How much poetry and that desire voiles in these Sons, the mysterious sounds! "

Third set

The attacca subito of the third movement suddenly interrupts the melancholy of the previous block and leads to the two -winged main themes of the final movement.

Effect

The influential music critic Eduard Hanslick remembered the concert at " the brutal and sad mirth of a Russian church consecration festival ," as well as " loud and vulgar desert faces " and " crude curses "; he said of the work, it will bring » forward to the horrible idea, if it could not give pieces of music that you hear stink ." Other music critics reacted negatively to the work. Similarly, hostile critics had commented on Tchaikovsky's four years earlier composed Piano Concerto No. 1 and their opinion later revised as far as possible. Tchaikovsky responded therefore left to the criticism and was convinced that the concert would prevail. And so it happened. The concert was enthusiastically acclaimed in London at the premiere in 1882. It is still the world's best known, most enacted and rehearsed violin concertos.

Discography

• Ruggiero Ricci, Netherlands Radio Orchestra, Jean Fournet, Decca
• David Oistrakh, The Symphony Orchestra of Moscow State Philharmonic Orchestra, Gennady Roshdestwendsky, Melodia - euro disc
• 2010: Hilary Hahn, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko, German Grammophon

Film

• The Concert ( Le concert ), Drama, France / Belgium / Italy, 2009