Violin Concerto in d: Langsam (Slowly; arranged by B. Britten)

Composer: SCHUMANN, Robert
  • Schumann composed his Violin Concerto in D minor between September 21 and October 3, 1853.1
    • Schumann met the young Johannes Brahms while he was working on this concerto (Sept.30, 1853). His article lauding Brahms as an important new voice in music, “New Paths,” appeared in the Neue Zeitschrift füt Musik on October 28, 1853. 
  • Joseph Joachim read through this concerto in January 1854 when the Schumanns were visiting Hanover for 12 days. 
    • When Schumann wrote to Joachim for his input on this concerto, Joachim had said he found much of the violin writing unidiomatic, but he did admire the melodic writing in the slow movement.2
    • This read-through with Joachim was about a month before Schumann’s suicide attempt on Feb.27, 1854, and subsequent hospitalization. This concerto was Schumann’s last orchestral work.3
    • Part of the reason we don’t hear this concerto often is that Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Joseph Joachim suppressed some of Robert’s last works, written when his illness became severe.4
  • This concerto was rediscovered in 1933 when Joseph Joachim’s grand-niece, violinist Adila Fachiri, claimed that its existence was revealed to her in a séance.5
    • The concerto’s concert premiere didn’t occur until November 26, 1937 in Berlin, performed by Georg Kulenkampff and the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Karl Böhm. They performed it before Joseph Goebbels, because the concerto was being touted for partly political reasons (the Nazis wanted to find a concerto to replace Mendelssohn’s popular Violin Concerto)  ☹6
  • This version of the slow movement was arranged by Benjamin Britten (with an added coda). Britten created this “Elegy for Orchestra” for a 1958 performance honoring his friend, hornist Dennis Brain, who had died in a car crash in 1957.7
    • Joshua Bell (the soloist in this recording) stated in an interview that in his opinion, “with that ending, the slow movement can stand alone.”8

Sources

  1.  John Daverio and Eric Sams, “Schumann, Robert,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed January 23, 2020,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040704. 
  2.  Laura Turnbridge, liner notes to Schumann: Violin Concertos, Anthony Marwood, BBC Scottish Orchestra, Douglas Boyd, Hyperion 67847, CD, 2012, accessed January 23, 2020, https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67847. 
  3.  John Daverio and Eric Sams, “Schumann, Robert,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed January 23, 2020,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040704. 
  4.  Laura Turnbridge, liner notes to Schumann: Violin Concertos, Anthony Marwood, BBC Scottish Orchestra, Douglas Boyd, Hyperion 67847, CD, 2012, accessed January 23, 2020, https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67847. 
  5.  Susan Lewis, “A Sumptuous Slow Movement with a Mysterious Past Now Soars Solo,” WRTI 90.1 (June 12, 2017), accessed January 23, 2020, https://www.wrti.org/post/sumptuous-slow-movement-mysterious-past-now-soars-solo. 
  6.  Laura Turnbridge, liner notes to Schumann: Violin Concertos, Anthony Marwood, BBC Scottish Orchestra, Douglas Boyd, Hyperion 67847, CD, 2012, accessed January 23, 2020, https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67847.
  7.  “For the Love of Brahms,” The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (September 30, 2016), accessed January 23, 2020, https://www.asmf.org/recordings/for-the-love-of-brahms/. 
  8.  Susan Lewis, “A Sumptuous Slow Movement with a Mysterious Past Now Soars Solo,” WRTI 90.1 (June 12, 2017), accessed January 23, 2020, https://www.wrti.org/post/sumptuous-slow-movement-mysterious-past-now-soars-solo. 

Cut IDs

21170