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Pyotr Ilylch Tchaikovsky continued The violin’s opening notes are like the first Steps of a charming young debutante. She’s unsure of herseif, bashful, agitated, and at first she almost slips and falls. But slowly, very slowly, she gains in confidence. Gradually she Starts making jokes and begins to take wing, a lithe, pure, half-childlike creature, yet soon to be the supreme belle du bal, caught in the delirium of a waltz. In this first movement one must probably be several things in a row and all at once: afluttery ballerina, a dashing officer, a seductive beauty, a fiery dancer and lover, Tatyana and Onegin.’ Like Mendelssohn’s Concerto, the cadenza is placed in the middle of the movement and Kopatchinskaja speaks amusingly of it treating us ‘to a hiccough and indecent natural noises, the horrified grimace of a shocked critic, to a kiss on the heels of a feline Violinist’. The central Canzonetta opens with an octet for wind setting the scene for the tentative song on muted violin. This leads to a second musical idea which sounds slightly more optimistic in tone but we then return to the haunting original tune, lovingly decorated by accompaniment on flute and clarinet. A bridge passage then takes us directly into the sudden outburst that opens the Finale. This is unmistakably Russian in character and brings to life a celebratory folk dance at the start and then comprising two further main ideas: the first of these themes is introduced over a drone pedal and droll bassoon accompaniment, the final theme is introduced briefly by duetting oboe and clarinet and is more introspective in mood. These three ideas then dominate the rest of the movement but there is no doubting which theme will eventually win the day as the work moves inevitably to its happy conclusion. © Timothy Dowling, June 2016
