Violin concerto

What it means

A violin concerto is a work for solo violin and orchestra. The usual layout comprises three movements: a weighty first movement, a slow middle movement, and a fast finale, often as a rondo or with a dance-like character. In the first movement, the ritornello principle of the Baroque concerto combines with sonata form; before the close there traditionally stands the soloist's cadenza.

Musical use

The genre arose in the Baroque and has since belonged to the core of the repertoire. Particular possibilities arise for the violin: it can sing like a voice, play polyphonically with double stops, sound brilliant in high registers, and set sharp contrasts with different bow strokes. Composers use this for an interplay of cantilena and virtuosity. At the same time the problem of projection arises: a single violin against a large orchestra demands careful instrumentation, which is why solo passages are often thinly accompanied. In the twentieth century the layout is much modified. Paganini wrote six violin concertos, of which the first is the best known; it stands originally in E-flat major but is today mostly played in D major.

Performance practice

Work through the orchestral parts as well, so that entries and transitions sit securely; practise with a recording or a piano reduction. Plan your strength over the whole movement, because the cadenza comes toward the end and demands full concentration. Choose the cadenza deliberately and coordinate it with the conductor. Clarify the balance early, especially in a low register and in dense tuttis. Watch tuning and warming up the instrument, since a cold hall changes intonation and response.

Bear in mind that the solo part is easily covered in the low register: composers mostly accompany such passages thinly, but the balance must nonetheless be checked in rehearsal. Discuss it with the conductor, rather than playing louder. In the twentieth century, Berg, Sibelius, and Shostakovich wrote significant violin concertos. Well-known cadenzas for Beethoven's Violin Concerto come from Joseph Joachim and Fritz Kreisler. Vivaldi's Four Seasons are violin concertos.

Check whether a cadenza belongs to the work or was added later, because its binding force follows from that.