 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(November 2010) |
Samuel Barber completed his Violin Concerto , Op. 14, in 1939. It is a work in three movements, lasting about 22 minutes.
| This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(November 2010) |
Samuel Barber completed his Violin Concerto , Op. 14, in 1939. It is a work in three movements, lasting about 22 minutes.
In 1939, Philadelphia industrialist Samuel Simeon Fels commissioned Barber to write a violin concerto for his ward, Iso Briselli, a graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music the same year as Barber, 1934. [1] The Barber biographies written by Nathan Broder (1954) and Barbara B. Heyman (1992) discuss the genesis of the concerto during the period of its commission and the 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 In late 2010, previously unpublished letters written by Fels, Barber, and Albert Meiff (Briselli's violin coach in that period) from the Samuel Simeon Fels Papers archived at the Historical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. [2]
Barber accepted Fels's advance [3] 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, but his plans were interrupted due to World War II. 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 continued his work on the concerto in the Pocono Mountains.
In Barber's account, he continues that he gave Briselli "the completed first two movements (about 15 minutes of music)" in "the middle of October" and "he seemed disappointed that they were not of virtuoso character--a bit too easy." [4] Barber then says he asked Briselli "what type of brilliant technique best suited him; he told me he had no preference." Barber continues: "At that time, he did not apparently dislike the idea of a 'perpetual motion' for the last movement." However, Briselli's account was that he liked the first two movements very much but suggested a more virtuosic third movement.
In mid-November, Briselli showed the two completed movements to his violin coach in New York City, Albert Meiff, who was immediately critical of the work from a violinistic standpoint. Meiff proceeded to write Fels a letter (November 13) in which he stated that the violin part had to undergo a "surgical operation", giving the reason that "[t]he technical embellishments are very far from the requirements of a modern violinist" and that the piece was unsuitable in its present state for performance by Briselli. Meiff said that he would rewrite the violin part in the two completed movements, and suggested that the third movement be written "with a knowledge of the instrument." [5]
Prior to sending the third movement to Briselli, Barber (now teaching at the Curtis Institute) tested its playability by asking a Curtis student, Herbert Baumel, to study the finale for a couple of hours, then to join Barber in pianist Josef Hofmann's studio and play the movement for him. In a letter to Fels on December 14, [4] Barber stated that he felt this test served as assurance that the movement was "practical and playable." Barber stated that he "worked very hard" on the last movement, finishing it "in far from ideal circumstances," and sent the violin part to Briselli about two months before the intended premiere. However, Briselli was disappointed when he received the third movement from Barber; according to Barber, his reasons were that "1st, he could not safely learn it for January; 2nd, it was not violinistic; 3rd, it did not suit musically the other two movements, it seemed to him rather inconsequential." He asked Barber if he would rewrite the finale to be premiered at a later date if necessary, suggesting ways to improve the movement such as expanding it into a sonata-rondo. Barber dismissed these suggestions and chose to keep his original finale, as he felt that he "could not destroy a movement in which I have complete confidence, out of artistic sincerity to myself," leading Briselli to give up his claim on the concerto. In the intended premiere performance, Briselli substituted Dvořák's Violin Concerto.
Meiff replied on December 26 to a handwritten note from Fels with a lengthy two-page letter [6] outlining to Fels, "point by point," the problems which he found with the piece, including that it "hasn't got enough backbone—not strong, not majestic—does not contain enough dramatic moments, all of which make for a successful performance." He criticized the finale in particular, stating that "[i]t was a dangerous thought from the very beginning, to make a perpetual motion movement ...without a breath of rest and without melodic parts...a risky tiresome ending...it was a wrong idea, and Mr. Barber should admit this."
The piece was privately performed in early 1940 by Baumel with the Curtis Institute Orchestra under Fritz Reiner. Following this performance, Eugene Ormandy scheduled its official premiere in a pair of performances by Albert Spalding with the Philadelphia Orchestra in the Academy of Music in February 1941. Those performances were followed on February 11, 1941, by a repeat performance in Carnegie Hall, and from that point, the piece rapidly entered the standard violin and orchestral repertoire, and has become one of the most frequently performed of all 20th-century concertos.[ citation needed ]
It received its UK premiere by Eda Kersey at a Proms concert in 1943. [7]
The concerto has been recorded and played by a number of violinists, including Augustin Hadelich, Louis Kaufman, Ruggiero Ricci, Elmar Oliveira, Leonid Kogan, Anne Akiko Meyers, Joshua Bell, Giora Schmidt, James Ehnes, Hilary Hahn, Itzhak Perlman, Johan Dalene, Gil Shaham and Isaac Stern. The version made in 1964 by Stern with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein remains a celebrated romantic interpretation, while the 1988 recording by Meyers with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra has been highly praised. A transcription of the concerto for flute and orchestra was recorded and issued on the now defunct Collins Classics label and later re-released on the Regis label with Jennifer Stinton as the soloist.
Barber provided these program notes for the premiere performance:
The concerto is scored for two each of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, and trumpets; timpani, snare drum, piano, and strings.
Samuel Osmond Barber II was an American composer, pianist, conductor, baritone, and music educator, and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. The music critic Donal Henahan said, "Probably no other American composer has ever enjoyed such early, such persistent and such long-lasting acclaim." Principally influenced by nine years' composition studies with Rosario Scalero at the Curtis Institute and more than 25 years' study with his uncle, the composer Sidney Homer, Barber's music usually eschewed the experimental trends of musical modernism in favor of traditional 19th-century harmonic language and formal structure embracing lyricism and emotional expression. However, he adopted elements of modernism after 1940 in some of his compositions, such as an increased use of dissonance and chromaticism in the Cello Concerto (1945) and Medea's Dance of Vengeance (1955); and the use of tonal ambiguity and a narrow use of serialism in his Piano Sonata (1949), Prayers of Kierkegaard (1954), and Nocturne (1959).
Alban Berg's Violin Concerto was written in 1935. It is probably Berg's best-known and most frequently performed instrumental piece, in which the composer sought to reconcile diatonicism and dodecaphony. The work was commissioned by Louis Krasner, and dedicated by Berg to "the memory of an angel", Manon Gropius. It was the last work that Berg completed. Krasner performed the solo part in the premiere at the Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona, on 19 April 1936, after the composer's death.
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.
The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 was the only concerto for violin composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Composed in 1878, it is one of the best-known violin concertos.
Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, is his last concerto. Well received at its premiere, it has remained among the most prominent and highly-regarded violin concertos. It holds a central place in the violin repertoire and has developed a reputation as an essential concerto for all aspiring concert violinists to master, and usually one of the first Romantic era concertos they learn. A typical performance lasts just under half an hour.
The Violin Concerto by William Walton was written in 1938–39 and dedicated to Jascha Heifetz, who commissioned the work and performed it at its premiere on 7 December 1939 with the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Artur Rodziński. The British premiere, delayed by the Second World War, was given on 1 November 1941, with Henry Holst as soloist and the composer conducting. Walton later reorchestrated the concerto; the revised version was premiered in 1944. The work has been frequently recorded and has established itself as one of the composer's most durable compositions.
Sergei Prokofiev began his Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19, as a concertino in 1915 but soon abandoned it to work on his opera The Gambler. He returned to the concerto in the summer of 1917. It premiered on October 18, 1923 at the Paris Opera with Marcel Darrieux playing the violin part and the Paris Opera Orchestra conducted by Serge Koussevitzky. Igor Stravinsky made his debut as conductor at the same concert, conducting the first performance of his own Octet for Wind Instruments.
Franz Theodor Reizenstein was a German-born British composer and concert pianist. He left Germany for sanctuary in Britain in 1934 and went on to have his teaching and performing career there. As a composer, he successfully blended the equally strong but very different influences of his primary teachers, Hindemith and Vaughan Williams.
Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26, is one of the most popular violin concertos in solo violin repertoire and, along with the Scottish Fantasy, the composer's most famous work. It has been recorded often.
Capricorn Concerto, Op. 21, is a composition for flute, oboe, trumpet, and strings by Samuel Barber, completed on September 8, 1944. A typical performance lasts approximately 14 minutes.
Benjamin Britten's Violin Concerto, Op. 15, was written from 1938 to 1939 and dedicated to Henry Boys, his former teacher at the Royal College of Music. It was premiered in New York on 29 March 1940 by the Spanish violinist Antonio Brosa with the New York Philharmonic conducted by John Barbirolli. A revised version of the concerto appeared in 1951, including alterations of the solo violin part prepared with the assistance of Manoug Parikian. It was performed by Bronislav Gimpel and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Thomas Beecham.
Jennifer Higdon's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra was written in 2008. The work was jointly commissioned by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and the Curtis Institute of Music. It was composed for the violinist Hilary Hahn and was given its world premiere by Hahn and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Mario Venzago on February 6, 2009. The piece was later awarded the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
The Violin Concerto is a concerto for violin and orchestra in two movements by the American composer Christopher Rouse. The work was commissioned for violinist Cho-Liang Lin by the Aspen Music Festival and School and funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. It was completed August 18, 1991 and is dedicated to Cho-Liang Lin.
The Violin Concerto is a concerto for violin and orchestra by the American composer Mason Bates. The work was commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and violinist Anne Akiko Meyers. It was premiered December 7, 2012, with Meyers and the Pittsburgh Symphony performing under conductor Leonard Slatkin.
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The Violin Concerto, subtitled Concentric Paths, is a composition for solo violin and chamber orchestra by the British composer Thomas Adès. The work was jointly commissioned by the Berliner Festspiele and the Los Angeles Philharmonic with funding from the philanthropists Lenore and Bernard Greenberg. It was composed for the violinist Anthony Marwood, who performed the world premiere with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in Berlin on September 4, 2005.
The Violin Concerto No. 1 is the first violin concerto by the British composer Peter Maxwell Davies. It was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to commemorate the ensemble's 40th anniversary. The work was completed in 1985 and first performed at the St Magnus Festival by the violinist Isaac Stern and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by André Previn on 21 June 1986. The piece is dedicated to Isaac Stern.
The Concerto for Violin and Orchestra "Eleven Eleven" is the first violin concerto written by American composer Danny Elfman. Co-commissioned by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Stanford Live at Stanford University, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the piece premiered at Smetana Hall in Prague, on June 21, 2017, with Sandy Cameron on violin and John Mauceri conducting the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. In 2019, the premiere recording of the concerto featured Cameron with Mauceri conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
The Concerto for Violin and Orchestra is violin concerto by the American composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. The work was commissioned by Carnegie Hall for the violinist Pamela Frank. It was completed on May 25, 1997, and was first performed by Pamela Frank and the Orchestra of St. Luke's conducted by Hugh Wolff in Carnegie Hall on March 26, 1998.
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