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Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 JEAN SIBELIUS Born December 8,1865, in Hämeenlinna (Tavastehus) Died September 20,1957, in Järvenpää Just as the symphonies and the tone poems may strike the listener as containing great canvases of Finland’s landscape and heroic past, the Violin Concerto seems to be tinged by a mood of communion with nature. Remarks about this work from music analysts and commentators include such ones as: “bardic songs heard against a background of pagan fires in some wild Northern night;” “the settled melancholy of a Finland of Northern darkness;” and “the violin expresses...the labor and the love of a sensitive, almost morbidly modern, Personality among the crude and prehistoric conditions of an unprotected land and ancient myths.” Sibelius wrote the Violin Concerto at Lojo, Finland, in 1903; it was premiered on February 8,1904, under the composer’s direction, with Victor Novacek as the soloist. Sibelius then revised the work during the summer of 1905 and in this new, definitive Version it was first performed in Berlin on October 19,1905, with Karl Halir playing the violin under the direction of Richard Strauss. By virtue of its thematic material and the way in which it is developed, Sibelius’ only concerto Stands alongside his symphonies and tone poems as testament to the composer’s right of inclusion in the list of the great European composers of the twentieth Century. Music writer Louis Biancoli best summarizes the make-up of this work in the following words: “Despite its strongly modern character and modified sonata form, Sibelius’ score belongs to the romantic tradition of the nineteenth Century concerto. The so-called ‘bardic’ moods and exotic folk like strains give it a special salience of its own. The Opposition of violin and orchestra is almost unique in its brooding contrasts, and the rhapsodic note of remote minstrelsy is strong, especially in the first movement. But the technique, the mounting climaxes, the surging drama of tone and theme, the high-register flutterings all give it a kinship with other repertory of the later romantic period.” The first movement is in a free sonata form. The solo violin annottnces the Principal theme over divided and muted strings, the somber character accentuated by an imitation of the opening motif by a clarinet. Two more important themes follow and, after a cadenza for the solo, the three subjects are recapitulated and developed at the same time. The Adagio di molto, a romanza, opens with a briefprelude followed by a broad, singing melody from the solo Instrument. The preludial woodwind motif returns to introduce a short contrasting section, which soon gives way to the return of the principal theme, now in the orchestra with elaborate figuration for the violin. There is a short coda.
