Violin Concertos: Personal Favorites (Early Works)
Violin Concertos: Personal Favorites (Early Works)
Periods: Baroque (Era II), Classical (Era III) and Early Romantic (Era IV)
In today’s blog I would like to return to a perennial topic, personal favorite compositions. I have recently written a post about piano concertos, and am now turning my attention to a short list of favorite violin concertos. Why concertos and not sonatas, or perhaps concert pieces? For my own personal taste, a concerto is scored for a full orchestra and soloist (or soloists) and I am drawn to the larger sound and overall presence that these pieces command.
As a former violinist, I continue to enjoy world-class performers performing works that I have studied, in some cases performed, but most I have simply admired from afar. The mechanically less demanding works for violin and orchestra were often written in the Baroque period and include compositions by several of my all-time top ten favorite composers including Bach and Vivaldi. The first concerto that makes today’s short list is the Bach Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in E major BWV 1042 (circa 1720) that virtually every aspiring violin student looks forward to studying, and, if possible, performing with a full ensemble. It is vintage Bach with wonderful melodies, harmonies and the counterpoint that we have come to love in a Bach composition. In my own library, I have the performance by Nigel Kennedy and the Berlin Philharmonic (2000) released on the EMI Classics label. It is up tempo, joyous and worthy of a place in one’s own personal library. Here is a YouTube™ clip of Kennedy performing the first movement of this Bach concerto.
As an unabashed fan of the music of Franz Joseph Haydn, the next concerto is his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in C major, Hob.VIIa:1 (circa 1765). I have several excellent versions in my library and will highlight my most recent addition performed by Gil Shaham and the Sejong Soloists on the Canary Label (2010). In this YouTube™ clip, Shaham performs this work in collaboration with the Israel Philharmonic and Dan Etinger conducting from the harpsichord.
Although Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote 5 wonderful, charming concertos for violin and orchestra, my next concerto, the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major, Op.61, was written by Ludwig van Beethoven and completed in 1806. It appears that it was very poorly received for a number of reasons, but was revived several decades later by the violinist Joseph Joachim and it has been a mainstay of the active concert repertoire every since. This work is still considered to be one of the best violin concertos ever written and merits careful, active listening on the part of any enthusiast of classical music in the western tradition. I have the collaboration between Itzhak Perlman and Daniel Barenboim conducting a live performance with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (1990) when both artists were at the height of their powers. On balance, this is one of the best recordings of this work that I have heard to date.
Niccolò Paganini’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra 1 in D major, Op. 6 (circa 1817) is my fourth concerto for today’s post. This work is both a dazzling showcase for the soloist’s technical skills and a wonderful, melodic early Romantic composition that continues to thrill audiences worldwide. This YouTube™ clip of the 3rd Movement of Paganini’s 1st Violin Concerto is performed by Diomedes Saraza, Jr. with the Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph Poppen.
I will close this post with my fifth and final concerto, Felix Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in E minor, Op.64 (1844). Arguably one of the most loved, and most frequently performed, violin concertos in the entire repertoire of classical music in the western tradition, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor was written when he was still in his teens (age 19) and completely captures the youthful enthusiasm and vitality penned by the composer. This YouTube™ clip of the 3rd movement of Mendelssohn’s E minor Violin Concerto is being performed by Sarah Chang and the New York Philharmonic conducted by Kurt Masur.