| Double Concerto | |
|---|---|
| by Johannes Brahms | |
 The composer in 1889 | |
| Key | A minor |
| Opus | 102 |
| Composed | 1887 |
| Performed | 18 October 1887: Cologne |
| Movements | three |
| Scoring |
|
The Double Concerto in A minor, Op. 102, by Johannes Brahms is a concerto for violin, cello and orchestra. The orchestra consists of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings.
The Double Concerto was Brahms' final work for orchestra. It was composed in the summer of 1887, and first performed on 18 October of that year in the Gürzenich in Cologne, Germany. [1] Brahms approached the project with anxiety over writing for instruments that were not his own. [2] He wrote it for the cellist Robert Hausmann, a frequent chamber music collaborator, [3] and his old but estranged friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim. The concerto was, in part, a gesture of reconciliation towards Joachim, after their long friendship had ruptured following Joachim's divorce from his wife Amalie. [4] [5] (Brahms had sided with Amalie in the dispute.)
The concerto makes use of the musical motif A–E–F, a permutation of F–A–E, which stood for a personal motto of Joachim, Frei aber einsam ("free but lonely"). [6] Thirty-four years earlier, Brahms had been involved in a collaborative work using the F-A-E motif in tribute to Joachim: the F-A-E Sonata of 1853.
| External audio | |
|---|---|
| Performed by Julia Fischer and Daniel Müller-Schott with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra under Yakov Kreizberg | |
 I. Allegro | |
| II. Andante | |
| III. Vivace non troppo |
The composition consists of three movements in the fast–slow–fast pattern typical of classical instrumental concerti:
Joachim and Hausmann performed the concerto, with Brahms at the podium, several times in its initial 1887–88 season, and Brahms gave the manuscript to Joachim, with the inscription "To him for whom it was written." Clara Schumann reacted unfavourably to the concerto, considering the work "not brilliant for the instruments". [7] Richard Specht also thought critically of the concerto, describing it as "one of Brahms' most inapproachable and joyless compositions". Brahms had sketched a second concerto for violin and cello but destroyed his notes in the wake of its cold reception.[ citation needed ] Later critics have warmed to it: Donald Tovey wrote of the concerto as having "vast and sweeping humour". [8] Its performance requires two brilliant and equally matched soloists.
Richard Cohn has included the first movement of this concerto in his discussions of triadic progressions from a Neo-Riemannian perspective. [9] Cohn has also analysed such progressions mathematically. [10] Cohn notes several progressions that divide the octave equally into three parts, and which can be analyzed using the triadic transformations proposed by Hugo Riemann.
The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, was written by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1806. Its first performance by Franz Clement was unsuccessful and for some decades the work languished in obscurity, until revived in 1844 by the then 12-year-old violinist Joseph Joachim with the orchestra of the London Philharmonic Society conducted by Felix Mendelssohn. Joachim would later claim it to be the "greatest" German violin concerto. Since then it has become one of the best-known and regularly performed violin concertos.
Joseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher who made an international career, based in Hanover and Berlin. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century.
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Tout un monde lointain... is a concertante work for cello and orchestra composed by Henri Dutilleux between 1967 and 1970 for Mstislav Rostropovich. It is considered one of the most important 20th-century additions to the cello repertoire and several major cellists have recorded it. Despite the fact that the score does not state that it is a cello concerto, Tout un monde lointain... has always been considered as such.
| Orchestral works | |
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| Concertante | |
| Vocal works with orchestra | |
| Chamber music |
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| Piano works |
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| Other compositions | |
| Collaborations | |
| Named for Brahms | |
| Related articles | |
| National libraries | |
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