Ludwig van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, of the Electorate of Cologne and...
's
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, was written in 1806.
The work was premiered on December 23, 1806 in the
Theater an der WienThe Theater an der Wien is an opera house in Vienna.-Origin:The theater opened in 1801 and was the brainchild of the Viennese theatrical impresario Emanuel Schikaneder, who is best known to history as Mozart's librettist and collaborator on the opera The Magic Flute...
in
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
. Beethoven wrote the
concertoThe term Concerto is usually a three-part musical work in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra...
for his colleague
Franz ClementFranz Joseph Clement was an Austrian violinist, pianist, composer, conductor of Vienna's Theater an der Wien and friend of Ludwig van Beethoven....
, a leading
violinThe violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
ist of the day, who had earlier given him helpful advice on his
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
FidelioFidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux...
. The occasion was a
benefit concertA benefit concert or charity concert is a concert, show or gala featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate humanitarian crisis. Such events raise both funds and public awareness to address the cause at...
for Clement. However, the first printed edition (1808) was dedicated to Beethoven’s friend Stephan von Breuning.
It is believed that Beethoven finished the solo part so late that Clement had to sight-read part of his performance.
Ludwig van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, of the Electorate of Cologne and...
's
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, was written in 1806.
The work was premiered on December 23, 1806 in the
Theater an der WienThe Theater an der Wien is an opera house in Vienna.-Origin:The theater opened in 1801 and was the brainchild of the Viennese theatrical impresario Emanuel Schikaneder, who is best known to history as Mozart's librettist and collaborator on the opera The Magic Flute...
in
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
. Beethoven wrote the
concertoThe term Concerto is usually a three-part musical work in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra...
for his colleague
Franz ClementFranz Joseph Clement was an Austrian violinist, pianist, composer, conductor of Vienna's Theater an der Wien and friend of Ludwig van Beethoven....
, a leading
violinThe violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
ist of the day, who had earlier given him helpful advice on his
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
FidelioFidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux...
. The occasion was a
benefit concertA benefit concert or charity concert is a concert, show or gala featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate humanitarian crisis. Such events raise both funds and public awareness to address the cause at...
for Clement. However, the first printed edition (1808) was dedicated to Beethoven’s friend Stephan von Breuning.
It is believed that Beethoven finished the solo part so late that Clement had to sight-read part of his performance. Perhaps to express his annoyance, or to show what he could do when he had time to prepare, Clement interrupted the concerto between the first and second movements with a solo composition of his own, played on one string of the violin held upside down.
The premiere was not a success, and the concerto was little performed in the following decades.
The work was revived in 1844, well after Beethoven's death, with performances by the then 12-year-old violinist
Joseph JoachimJoseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher. He is widely regarded as a great and significantly influential violinist of the late 19th century.-Origins:...
with the orchestra conducted by
Felix MendelssohnJakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born, and generally known in English-speaking countries, as Felix Mendelssohn was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period....
. Ever since, it has been one of the most important works of the violin concerto repertoire, and it is frequently performed and recorded today. In 1993, violinist
Stephanie ChaseStephanie Chase is an American concert violinist and educator.Chase's playing is characterized by "virtuosity galore," with "great intensity and a huge tone, the epitome of the modern violinist" and she is "renowned for her impeccable intonation." As soloist, she has performed in twenty-five...
and the
Hanover BandThe Hanover Band founded by Caroline Brown in 1980 is a British period-instrument orchestra.The group's website explains the name thus: 'Hanover' signifies the Hanoverian period 1714-1830 and 'Band' is the 18th century term for orchestra....
made the first recording on period instruments, with cadenzas composed by Chase.
Structure
The work is in three
movementsA movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession.Often a composer attempts to...
:
- Allegro ma non troppo (D major)
- Larghetto (G major)
- Rondo. Allegro (D major)
It is scored, in addition to the solo violin, for single
fluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind group. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, and pairs of
oboeThe oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois", "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
s,
clarinetThe clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet...
s,
bassoonThe bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 1800s, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band, and chamber music literature...
s,
hornsThe horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
,
trumpetThe trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC...
s, and
timpaniTimpani are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper, and more recently, constructed of more lightweight fiberglass. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick...
along with
stringsThe string section is the largest body of the standard orchestra and consists of bowed string instruments of the violin family.It normally comprises five sections: the first violins, the second violins, the violas, the cellos, and the double basses...
.
CadenzaIn music, a cadenza is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing for virtuosic display....
s for the work have been written by several notable violinists, including Joachim. The cadenzas by
Fritz KreislerFritz Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violinists of his day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately recognizable as his own...
are probably most often employed. More recently, composer
Alfred SchnittkeAlfred Garyevich Schnittke was a Russian and Soviet composer. Schnittke's early music shows the strong influence of Dmitri Shostakovich. He developed a polystylistic technique in works such as the epic First Symphony and First Concerto Grosso . In the 1980s, Schnittke's music began to become...
provided controversial cadenzas with a characteristically 20th-century flavor; violinist
Gidon KremerGidon Kremer is a Latvian violinist and conductor. In 1980 he left the USSR and settled in Germany.-Biography:Kremer was born in Riga to parents of German-Jewish and Latvian-Swedish origins...
has recorded the concerto with the Schnittke cadenzas.
The first movement is unusual in that it starts with four beats on the timpani as the opening notes, and it has an extremely long duration of about 25 minutes.
Perhaps due to the Violin Concerto's lack of success at its premiere, Beethoven revised it in
a version for solo piano and orchestraOpus 61a by Ludwig van Beethoven is Beethoven's own arrangement of his Violin Concerto, op. 61 for piano and orchestra. Beethoven wrote new cadenzas for this arrangement, dedicating it to Julie von Breuning....
, which was later published as Opus 61a. For this version - which is present as a sketch in the Violin Concerto's autograph alongside revisions to the solo violin part - Beethoven wrote a lengthy, somewhat bombastic first movement cadenza which features the orchestra's tympanist along with the solo pianist. This and the cadenzas for the other movements were later arranged for the violin by the 20th-century violinists
Max RostalMax Rostal was a violinist. He was Austrian-born, but later took British citizenship.He was born in Cieszyn and studied with Carl Flesch. From 1930-33 he taught at the Berlin Hochschule, from 1944 to 1958 at the Guildhall School of Music, and then at the Musikhochschule Köln and the Conservatory...
and
Wolfgang SchneiderhanWolfgang Eduard Schneiderhan was an Austrian classical violinist.He was born in Vienna. After briefly studying with Otakar Ševčík in Pisek, he studied with Julius Winkler in Vienna. At age 10 he publicly performed Bach's Chaconne in D minor. The next year he made his debut in Copenhagen playing...
.
External links
- Complete performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra
- Complete performances from the Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building and maintaining a free and openly accessible online digital library, including an archive of the World Wide Web....
by Jascha HeifetzJascha Heifetz was a Jewish violin virtuoso born in Lithuania , and is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's preeminent violinists and one of the greatest violinists of all time.- Early life :...
/Arturo ToscaniniArturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th Centuries, he was renowned for his brilliant intensity, his restless perfectionism, his phenomenal ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
& Fritz KreislerFritz Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violinists of his day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately recognizable as his own...
/John BarbirolliSir John Barbirolli, CH was a British conductor and cellist. Barbirolli was particularly associated with the Hallé Orchestra, Manchester, which he conducted for nearly three decades...
.
- Theme from third movement