Violin Concerto No. 1 (Haydn)
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The Violin Concerto No. 1 in C major by Joseph Haydn, fatto per il luigi, (Hob. VIIa:1) was written in the 1760s (maybe in 1765) for the well-known violinist of the time, Alois Luigi Tomasini who was just back from Italy and soon became the concertmaster of the Esterházy-orchestra.
The piece has three movements, each written in sonata form, like the first cello concerto from that time.
In the first movement, the violin solo enters with the theme using full-sounding double stops. The second movement in the subdominant key of F major is a beautiful cantilena. The Finale is full of fast runs, double stops and big changes in both volume and pitch. This indicates that this radiantly festive work was conceived to display the particular strength of Tomasini.
None of Haydn's violin concertos exist today in autograph form. The work went unpublished until the mid-twentieth century and has come down to us in only very few copies (eight manuscripts).
