Violin Concerto (Elgar)

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The Violin Concerto in B Minor, opus 61, is one of Sir Edward Elgar's longest orchestral works. Like most concertos it has three movements. They are:

  1. Allegro
  2. Andante
  3. Allegro molto

The work is on the largest scale for a concerto, taking between forty-five and fifty-five minutes to perform (see 'Recordings' below for indicative timings).

The Royal Philharmonic Society of London commissioned the concerto in 1909, when Elgar was at the height of his fame. It is dedicated to Fritz Kreisler who was the soloist at the first performance. The score also carries the inscription, ‘Aqui está encerrada el alma de .....' (‘Herein is enshrined the soul of .....’), a quotation from the novel Gil Blas by Lesage. This is widely believed to allude to Alice Stuart-Wortley, Elgar’s dear friend whom he nicknamed 'Windflower' and who is generally recognised as Elgar's inspiration for the work[1].

The première, on 10 November 1910, was Elgar’s last great popular success. Of his later large-scale works neither the Second Symphony nor Falstaff nor the Cello Concerto achieved the immediate popularity of the First Symphony or this concerto.

The first movement, in traditional sonata form, begins with a long orchestral exposition of the themes, before the violin enters with a restatement of the first subject.

The second movement, in the key of B flat, has a shorter orchestral prelude, and is mostly quiet and songful, but rises to an impassioned climax.

The last movement begins with a quiet but strenuous violin passage, accompanied by the orchestra, with many double stops and fast arpeggios; themes from the first and second movements are recalled and then, as the movement seems to be heading for a conventional finish, there is an unexpected and unconventional accompanied cadenza in which the orchestra supports the solo with a pizzicato tremolando thrumming effect. This cadenza, though demanding to perform, is not the usual virtuoso showpiece: it is the emotional and structural climax of the whole work. Themes from earlier in the work are restated and finally the concerto ends in a characteristic blaze of orchestral sound.

Elgar said of the work, 'It's good! awfully emotional! too emotional, but I love it.'[2]

[edit] Recordings

A version of the concerto was recorded in 1916, using the acoustic process, the technical limitations of which necessitated drastic rearrangement of the score. The soloist was Marie Hall, and the unnamed orchestra was conducted by the composer.

Electrical recording, introduced in the 1920s, gave a greatly improved dynamic range and realism, and the two leading English record companies, Columbia and HMV both made recordings of the concerto that remain in the catalogue. The first complete recording was made in 1929 for Columbia by Albert Sammons with the New Queen’s Hall Orchestra conducted by Sir Henry Wood.

HMV hoped to record the work with Kreisler, but he proved elusive (believing Elgar to be a poor conductor)[3] and HMV’s producer, Fred Gaisberg, turned instead to the young Yehudi Menuhin. 'In spite of the existence of a magnificent recording of his Violin Concerto by Albert Sammons, whose authority and interpretation of this greatest English work for violin will never be bettered, I had a great ambition to have Sir Edward himself conduct the work. As a youthful and pliant performer without prejudice, who would respond best to his instruction, I selected Yehudi Menuhin as the most promising soloist.' [4] The recording was made at EMI’s Abbey Road Studio 1 in 1932 and has remained in print on 78, LP and CD ever since.

These two recordings typify the two contrasting approaches to the work that have existed ever since: Sammons and Wood, in a brisk performance, take just over 43 minutes to play the work; Menuhin and Elgar, in a more overtly expressive reading take almost 50 minutes.

Other recordings of the monaural era include those by Jascha Heifetz (1949) and Alfredo Campoli (1954). Both these performances are in the Sammons/Wood tradition, taking, respectively, approximately 42 and 45 minutes.

Many modern stereo recordings favour the slower approach of Menuhin and Elgar. Menuhin himself in his stereo remake in 1965 was slightly quicker (just under 48 minutes) than he had been in 1932, but Pinchas Zukerman in his two studio versions took a little over 50 minutes in his first recording and a little under 49 in his second. Both of Nigel Kennedy’s recordings play for nearly 54 minutes. Itzhak Perlman’s is slightly faster, at just over 47 minutes; and Dong-Suk Kang’s takes under 45 minutes.

A recording released in 2006 uses a text based on Elgar’s manuscript score rather than the published version. The soloist, Philippe Graffin, counted more than 40 places where the published version differs from Elgar’s original. The changes are thought to have been suggested by Kreisler to make the solo part more effective.[5] (Reviewing the CD in June 2006 The Gramophone’s critic Edward Greenfield observed, ‘some that the differences are very small…I have to confess that had I not been told, I might have appreciated only two of them’.)

[edit] Selective discography

Mono recordings

Stereo recordings

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Michael Kennedy, notes to EMI recording CDM7 63795 2
  2. ^ Michael Kennedy, op cit
  3. ^ The Gramophone November 1989
  4. ^ Fred Gaisberg, Music on Record, Robert Hale, London 1946
  5. ^ The Independent, 21 March 2006

addition to the recordings: on lp Marie ~Hall pearl Elgar edition vol. 3 gem 112

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