20th Century Violin Concertos

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

In a recent posting on the "What are you listening to now?" thread, Waldhorn referred to the Delius Violin Concerto as "one of the handful of truly great" VCs of the 20th Century.

My "hands" would include those of Elgar, Schönberg, Berg, Bartok (#2) and Ligeti, but I would hate to be deprived of the Stravinsky, Britten, Prokofiev, Sibelius, Nielsen, Walton, Nordheim, Panufnik, Barber, Rosza, Korngold ... and Ferneyhough's Terrain.

In fact, I think that the 20th Century produced more good Violin Concertos than did the 19th: does anyone else share this opinion?

[amateur51]

A good list indeed, fhg.

May I add the two by Shostakovich please? And the Ades is growing on me

[Chris Newman]

I certainly agree, ferneyhoughgeliebte.

Beethoven, Brahms, Bruch, Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and that is about it.

Kreuzer, Sarasate and Spohr wrote some nice oddities but nothing as great.

You can add some more twentieth century works too, though most would be the equivalent of Spohr, Kreutzer and co. Where a composer has written more than one I have indicated:
Milton Babbitt
Samuel Barber
Arnold Bax
Ernest Bloch
Ferruccio Busoni
Elliott Carter
Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco
Samuel Coleridge Taylor
Claude Debussy - Nocturnes (version 2 from 1894), originally a concerto for Ysaye
Frederick Delius
David Diamond
Tan Dun - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Alberto Ginastera
Philip Glass - Einstein on the Beach and VC
Alexander Glazunov
Sofia Gubaidalina - Offertorium
Paul Hindemith - Kammermusik viii
Hans Werner Henze - violin concertos
Gustav Holst - Concerto for 2 violins
Leos Janacek
Dmitri Kabalevsky
Aram Khachaturian
Gyorgy Ligeti
Witold Lutoslawski - Chain ii
Gustav Mahler - violin concerto in f#m
Bohuslav Martinu
Giancarlo Menotti
Nikolai Myaskovsky
Carl Neilsen
Kryzstof Penderecki
Allan Pettersson
Sergei Prokofiev - violin concertos
Joaquin Rodrigo
Christopher Rouse
Richard Strauss
Igor Stravinsky
Karol Szymanowski - violin concertos
Kurt Weill

Then there are the grey areas:

George Gershwin - Porgy & Bess Fantasy
Arvo Part - Fratres
Maurice Ravel - Tzigane
Ralph Vaughan Williams- The Lark Ascending

I cannot claim to have heard all of these works. Some as I indicate may be second rate. Quite a few, I would suggest, are awaiting a Hilary Hahn to prove that they are first rate as she has done with Schoenberg's VC.

[Petrushka]

May I put in a word for the George Dyson Violin Concerto? Its neglect is a complete mystery to me.

[Bryn]

Well Brian, (Havergal, that is).

[Suffolkcoastal]

First of all please add the beautiful Moeran concerto and I'll add my voice to the delightful Bax concerto, mentioned above.The two Piston concertos need to be added to the list, other notable American concertos not mentioned so far include the Schuman, Harris, Robert Ward and Sessions, I've got recordings of some lesser known ones too including a rather good one by Easley Blackwood. There are also fine concertos by Rubbra, Vainberg/Weinberg and Tubin, the Tubin 1st concerto really is an outstanding work that should be in the general repertoire along with the above mentioned Piston 1st Concerto. Another composer forgotten about is Alun Hoddinott, I'm sure I've got one of his Violin Concertos somewhere in an off-air performance and was quite taken with it. The Williamson is supposed to be a good work, though that is one work I've yet to hear and am very keen to do so. Also concertos by Bliss (rather a good one), Frankel and Fricker which I have in my collection.

[Roslynmuse]

Dutilleux - L'arbre des songes (and also a short piece entitled Sur le même accord). Of the others listed I have a particular fondness for the Britten, Berg and Szymanowski No 2. I have a major problem with the Barber - or rather with the way it is usually performed - the first movement is often taken way slower than SB indicates.

Suffolkcoastal's mention of Hoddinott reminds me that one of William Mathias's last works was a Violin concerto for Lydia Mordkovich and the Halle under Stanislaw Skrowaczewski in 1991 (not 1992 as given in Wikipedia).

[There are several other 19th century concertos worth hearing - the three Saint-Saens, Lalo (at least three - Norwegian and Russian as well as Spanish, and a rather dull 'Op 20). What's the mysterious Mahler Chris mentions??]

[Chris Newman]

Oh, Roslynmuse. You must keep an eye out for the Mahler on Amazon. Occasionally a sighting is reported.

I shall come clean: it was a famous spoof when the following review appeared and many people tried to order it. Wonderful line up:

http://inkpot.com/classical/mahvncon.html

Shame about the date lurking in the small print.

[Roehre]

A work which IMHO ranks among the great 20C violin concertos is Tristan Keuris' 2nd violin concerto from 1995.

but others are (not mentioned previously already) i.a.:
Alwyn
Bacewicz (7)
Bacri
Blacher
Blomdahl
Bolcom
Dohnanyi (2)
von Einem
Finzi
Foerster (2)
Frankel "In Memory of the six million"
Hamilton
Harbison
Harty (a real fullblooded romantic concerto)
Henkemans
Hindemith (violin concerto)
Hoddinott (2, incl. Mistral)
Franz Hummel "Archaeopteryx"
Karlowicz
Klami
Keuris (2)
Korngold
Kox (3)
Larsson
Lees
Linde
Lloyd (2)
Maderna
Martin
Matthus
Maxwell Davies (2)
Maw
Meyer
Milhaud (2)
Nordgren (3)
Norholm
Pfitzner
Pijper
Rawsthorne (2)
Reger
Rihm "Gesungene Zeit"
Rochberg
Rorem
roslavets
Saariaho "Graal Theatre"
saeverud
Sallinen
Schillings
Schoeck
Schuller (2)
Schurman (not Schuman !)
Schnittke (4)
Vogel
S.Wagner
Grace Williams
Zimmermann

[Pabmusic]

How about RVW in D minor ('Concerto Accademico') for those in neo-classical mood?

[salymap]

All truly great??? Then WHY don't we hear most of them at the Proms and on R3?

[Tapiola]

There is also the beautiful first concerto by Poul Ruders, with echoes of Vivaldi and Schubert.

[ahinton]

If we're to stick with truly great ones among the 20th century canon rather than merely compiling long lists (interesting though they are) then, for me, it would be the Bloch, the two Szymanowski and one that's yet to be mentioned, the one by Stevenson; the 7 by Bacewicz are also of considerable interest in their 20th century violinist/composerly parallel to those of Wieniawski and Vieuxtemps except that their musical substance is vastly greater (she was evidently a fine pianist as well, rather like Sophie-Carmen Eckhart-Gramatté).

[Roehre]

All truly great??? Then WHY don't we hear most of them at the Proms and on R3?

The ones I listed are worth more than hearing, and many of them -ahinton rightly points at Bloch and Bacewicz, I'd like to add the Keuris and Schnittke e.g.- are great concertos. It's only a selection of approximately a third of the 20 C violin concertos I my collection. There are many more of which the premiere was the derniere as well and rightly so IMHO.

About Szymanowski 2 I am in two minds: it's a great concerto without doubt, but at many places the orchestration is too heavy to have the solo part heard where it is meant to be heard. Perhaps that's why it's more popular on records than in the concert hall.

[3rd Viennese School]

Schnittke Violin 4 was the first Schnittke I ever heard live, in 2001, and I haven’t heard it since. Going to buy it eventually. Just finished ploughing through all the symphonies.

Berg is probably my favourite 20th century one. Stravinsky is certainly different! That would make a change on the television.

One that’s not mentioned is Henze. Might buy that one as well! Almost finished ploughing through all the symphonies, with only no.8 left.

Currently ploughing through the Bartok,(Naxos) and I must say, still don’t understand them yet!

3VS

P.S. er, Mahler????