20th Century Violin Concertos

[Segilla]

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

Yes, yes. A fine work, one which I really enjoy.

[3rd Viennese School]

Missed the Harrison Birtwistle twice! Radio 3 doesnt work in Cornwall.

Okay, its 21st Century, but wot are the thoughts?

3Vs

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Hi, 3VA!

On the "What's your opinion of this year's Proms?" thread I said of the Birtwistle VC:

" ... the work I was most looking forward to in the entire season. I loved the way HB wrote so idiomatically for the Violin without compromising his unique voice, and the way the work teetered between gentle lament and aggressive rhythmic propulsion - often simultaneously (those long searing melodies "accompanied" by shards of flinty dissonances familiar in his works from Earth Dances onward). Tremendous stuff!"

I loved the work, and subsequent hearings haven't diminished its appeal for me: quite the opposite.

Best Wishes.

[3rd Viennese School]

Thanks Ferney.

I'm still not brave enough to play the Ligeti (the Violin is a dreadful instrument if you get the wrong work!)

Exploring the Bartoks at the moment. But sometimes they have to wait their turn with Schnittke Symphony no.2.

Still dont really have a favourite so I'll go for Berg. No empty spaces in the entire work!

3VS

[Stanfordian]

There are some very fine and accessible 20th Century violin concertos. My favourite concertos are:
1) Shostakovich No.1
2) Shostakovich No.2
3) Walton
4) Britten
5) Busoni
6) Barber
7) Szymanowski No.1
8) Szymanowski No.2
9) Berg

The ones that I play the most often are the Walton, the Britten and the two Shostakovich concertos.

I forgot to add to my list the magnificant Elgar; the two from Prokofiev and also the one from Myaskovsky.

[EdgeleyRob]

I forgot to add to my list the magnificant Elgar.....

If I could choose only one this would be it.

[Rosie55]

This Hoddinott Poeme for Violin and Orchestra - The Heaventree of Stars - is very evocative and has wraiths of impressionistic sounds whirling gently around the violin line. Hu Kun is the soloist and the BBC NOW orchestra on this very good Nimbus recording recording which include Hoddinott's 1989 Proms commission 'Star Children' which is one of his masterpieces and should be given a live airing at a Prom very soon, especially as nothing of his was performed in his 80th birthday year or during the year he died...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heaventree-Stars-Passaggio-Children-Doubles/dp/B0000037EV/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1318114944&sr=8-3

[John Skelton]

No one that I can see has mentioned Heinz Holliger's violin concerto, which for me is one of the most important orchestral works of the past 40 years (which I suppose implies that it works against the grain of being a 'violin concerto' rather than repeating the model with differences). YouTube's not a great way to hear anything, but it's an idea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VCChsVxAYk

Bruno Maderna's concerto is lovely. Aldo Clementi's Concerto per violino, carillons e 40 strumenti is gorgeous, too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_GxW7v4QcE

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

This Hoddinott Poeme for Violin and Orchestra - ... nothing of his was performed in his 80th birthday year or during the year he died...

... nor, sadly, very much in the 3-and-a-half tears since. If his name is mentioned at all on R3 it's usually followed by the word "Hall". A fine composer, I don't know this Poeme (and thanks for the Clair Booth "pointer" elsewhere).

Thanks, too, to John Skelton: I don't know either the Holliger or the Maderna, but I had forgotten the lovely Aldo Clementi, which I have on cassette tape from a broadcast from some years ago.

Best Wishes.

[Rosie55]

Thanks for the Holliger link - very good!

[Serial_Apologist]

Just now been listening to a 1967 R3 broadcast on a reel-to-reel of Liverpool-born composer David Ellis's 1960 Violin Concerto. Erich Gruenberg with the BBC Northern SO under George Hurst - a magnificent performance. Stylistically somewhere between Berg and Mahler: big powerful gestures, sumptuous orchestrations in a largely atonal but unselfconscious and I would have thought easily accessible neo-romantic idiom, which was pretty unfashionable for its time.

One wonders in perpexity why this remarkable composer barely ever features in concerts or broadcasts these days. David Blake is another who seems to have fallen by the wayside.

S-A

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

And didn't Blake himself write a Violin Concerto? (One of Menuhin's commissions?)
I remember In Praise of Krishna from a York University concert in 1980/81. "Sumptuous" describes that work, too; 'tho' I was then rather unimpressed by what seemed to me to be a timid overuse of nostalgist gestures. (I was very much more of the Boulez attitude to New Music in those days. And Blake had just rejected my application to study at York. Without an interview. For the second time. )

[Serial_Apologist]

And didn't Blake himself write a Violin Concerto? (One of Menuhin's commissions?)
I remember In Praise of Krishna from a York University concert in 1980/81. "Sumptuous" describes that work, too; 'tho' I was then rather unimpressed by what seemed to me to be a timid overuse of nostalgist gestures. (I was very much more of the Boulez attitude to New Music in those days. And Blake had just rejected my application to study at York. Without an interview. For the second time. )

I still have the LP with the VC on one side and "In Praise of Krishna" on the other, Ferney. Imv the Violin concerto is by far the superior of the two works. Blake studied in Berlin with Eisler; he's never betrayed his Eislerian sympathies (nor have I) and maybe this is one of the reasons for his neglect - similar to how Alan Bush was treated in the 1930s/40s. Unfiortunately there doesn't seem to exist an established composer today of the stature of Vaughan Williams, who wrote the Beeb a letter during World War 2 stating that unless the organisation lifted its embargo on Bush, he (VW) would not permit any of his own music to be broadcast. An amazing act of generosity for one by no means in sympathy with Bush's Communism at the time.

The BBC did formally retract its ban... but then failed to broadcast any music by Bush. One statement in writing, followed by denial in action. Remind anyone of anything?

[Barbirollians]

Roehre is spot on - the Harty is a splendid full blown romantic concerto and great fun and worthy of an outing in the concert hall - there is a superb recording by the late Ralph Holmes .

[Beef Oven!]

My top ten 20th Century violin concertos are:

1 Ligeti
2 Ligeti
3 Ligeti
4 Ligeti
5 I don't have a fifth favourite
6 Ligeti
7 Schuman
8 Berg
9 Rubbra
10 One of Piston's

And Shostakovich - either his first or second

Possibly Britten

Skryabin should have written one