Favorite 20th Century Violin Concertos

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Pettersson has as many votes as Schoenberg?!!!??!???!??!???!?!??!!!?!?!??!??!

We have many Pettersson fans on this board, which I think is a great thing. I like a lot of his music. I'm actually surprised to see the Barber get less votes. I think it's a 20th Century masterpiece.

Actually, right now it looks like Schoenberg, Khachaturian, and Pettersson have 4 votes each. Interesting to say the least.

[springrite]

Pettersson has as many votes as Schoenberg?!!!??!???!??!???!?!??!!!?!?!??!??!

Yes, and Pettersson should have many many more! 

[karlhenning]

Yes, and Pettersson should have many many more! 

What does Kimi say? ; )

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

Considering Tchaikovsky's VC was composed in 1878, this work hardly qualifies for a 20th Century work. Don't you know this?

People. I know Tchaik VC isn't from 20th century. I didn't write Tchaik composed it 1999 and I didn't write he composed it together with Jesus. My writing was about my dissonances with VCs.

[karlhenning]

People. I know Tchaik VC isn't from 20th century. I didn't write Tchaik composed it 1999 and I didn't write he composed it together with Jesus. My writing was about my dissonances with VCs.

I understood that. My point is, that if your objections to violin concerti stem from this experience with the Tchaikovsky, your objections may not matter w/r/t most oft he 20^th-c. repertory.

(As an aside: I like the Tchaikovsky vn cto a great deal.)

[DavidW]

I understood that. My point is, that if your objections to violin concerti stem from this experience with the Tchaikovsky, your objections may not matter w/r/t most oft he 20^th-c. repertory.

(As an aside: I like the Tchaikovsky vn cto a great deal.)

I don't know I think it casts a long shadow over the VCs that came after it.  Tchaikovsky is an iconic warhorse, it practically redefined the genre.  I think that even listening to Ligeti's VC it's hard not to have some dark part of my mind recalling the sweetly melodic but sometimes bombastic Tchaikovsky piece.

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People. I know Tchaik VC isn't from 20th century. I didn't write Tchaik composed it 1999 and I didn't write he composed it together with Jesus. My writing was about my dissonances with VCs.

Perhaps you should make your point clearer from now on instead of posting something that makes you look like you don't have a clue as to what you're even talking about. By the way, your initial post mentions NOTHING about dissonances:

I heard Tchaikovsky VC once in the concert hall; the violin was too expressive, too artificial, too made up for me. The violinist behaved like Gollum like she wanted to sell roses to the conductor. I've got some problems with many soloist works. My first and last VC! I'll give Sibelius a try one day, I know bits of it.

Tell me where in this paragraph do you discuss the dissonances of the Tchaikovsky's VC?

[karlhenning]

I don't think he meant musical dissonance, but his own aversion to violin concerti. But then, I could well be mistaken.

[71 dB]

My writing was about my dissonances with VCs.

Don't you generalize a bit too much here? All VCs are not alike. All performances are not alike.

[Daverz]

I heard Tchaikovsky VC once in the concert hall; the violin was too expressive, too artificial, too made up for me. The violinist behaved like Gollum like she wanted to sell roses to the conductor. I've got some problems with many soloist works. My first and last VC! I'll give Sibelius a try one day, I know bits of it.

Perhaps you mean Boris Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto (written 1969)?

[Sid]

Another fine violin concerto that is not on this list is Elliot Carter's. It is quite a lyrical work, and (unusually for Carter) for once the orchestra has an accompanying role rather than as another protagonist in the scheme of things. But funnily enough, I have taken more of a liking to the other concerto of his that I have on cd, the Clarinet Concerto. The orchestra is definitely not in the background in this work, and I find it to be a more colourful and dramatic work than his Violin Concerto...

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

Perhaps you should make your point clearer from now on instead of posting something that makes you look like you don't have a clue as to what you're even talking about. By the way, your initial post mentions NOTHING about dissonances:

As being not the only non native speaker I was hoping people would understand me despite of my english language weaknesses - I'm sorry my writing led to misunderstanding here (only Karl understands me ). I try to explain now, even though it doen't go 100% en par with the threads topic 
As Karl said, I wanted to write about my aversion to soloist concerts. Yes, I'm probably generalizing. Especially in Violin or Cello concertos, I'm under the impression the composer primarily doesn't want to make decent music, but rather wants to offer the opportunity for the soloist, to show that he a master at his instrument. I don't like the situations, where the violinist plays for minutes, 100s of variations of a theme, while the orchestra is picking in their noses. That all sounds unorganic, unnatural and made up to me.
But I have no problem to admit my experience is poor. It's a cello concerto and 2,5 VCs I've ever heard as a whole.
I'm always open to explorer good orchestral music - but the soloists as I heard them destroyed the musics flow. Just my 2p.

Michael

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As being not the only non native speaker I was hoping people would understand me despite of my english language weaknesses - I'm sorry my writing led to misunderstanding here (only Karl understands me ). I try to explain now, even though it doen't go 100% en par with the threads topic 
As Karl said, I wanted to write about my aversion to soloist concerts. Yes, I'm probably generalizing. Especially in Violin or Cello concertos, I'm under the impression the composer primarily doesn't want to make decent music, but rather wants to offer the opportunity for the soloist, to show that he a master at his instrument. I don't like the situations, where the violinist plays for minutes, 100s of variations of a theme, while the orchestra is picking in their noses. That all sounds unorganic, unnatural and made up to me.
But I have no problem to admit my experience is poor. It's a cello concerto and 2,5 VCs I've ever heard as a whole.
I'm always open to explorer good orchestral music - but the soloists as I heard them destroyed the musics flow. Just my 2p.

Michael

I understand what you're saying now. Let me say that I think the best concertos tell a story or have some sort of narrative. I'm not one for useless note-spinning for sake of it, which why I don't like alot of them. The 20th Century, for me, kind of broke down this barrier to where a concerto just wasn't about virtuosity or showmanship, it was about the music, which is what I'm interested in and which is why I chose the VCs that I did: Berg, Barber (except for the last movement, which has never went over well with me anyway), Vaughan Williams, and the Bartok. These concertos, for me, are less concerned with virtuosity and more concerned with, as I already mentioned, giving some kind of narrative.

In all honesty, I like all of the composer's VCs that I mentioned with the exception of the Gubaidulina, which is the only one on the list I haven't heard.

[Luke]

You've heard the Part? What's it like?

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You've heard the Part? What's it like?

When I'm talking about Part's VC, I'm talking about Tabula Rasa or the work Fratres for violin, string orchestra, and percussion. Part has never composed a work simply titled Violin Concerto.

[Luke]

He has actually. I didn't know about it myself (and I'm quite a Part fan, particularly of the early tintinabuli stuff). I did wonder what you were talking about when I saw that you'd given a violin concerto by Part as an option, so to be sure I googled it a few days ago - and found to my surprise that he had actually written one, but only very recently, premiered last year and not recorded yet, and I assumed that you must have heard that one somewhere. Obviously not!

But the violin/string orch version of Fratres is certainly not a concerto, any more than Tzigane is, and Tabula Rasa isn't either - it's got two violin soloists, for a start.

[Grazioso]

But the violin/string orch version of Fratres is certainly not a concerto, any more than Tzigane is, and Tabula Rasa isn't either - it's got two violin soloists, for a start.

Though having two violin soloists doesn't in itself negate a work's concerto status: witness, for example, the ones by Bach and Vivaldi.

[Luke]

No, of course not - sorry, wasn't clear - but they and concerti like them (Martinu's spring to mind) are not violin concerti, which is what this thread is asking about, they are concerti for n violins. Tabula Rasa is actually subtitled as a concerto - but not as a violin concerto, and that last was my ill-put point!

FWIW there are other Part works for solo violin and orchestra which qualify as contenders to something approaching concerto status as much or more than Fratres - there's Darf ich... , for violin, bells and strings, and there's Passacaglia, for violin, vibes and strings... But they aren't concerti either, though they might be concertante. When Part writes a concerto he calls it such, either explicitly (as in the new violin concerto which, now I google it again, I can't find refered to anywhere!) or as a subtitle, as in the cello concerto Pro et Contra or indeed Tabula Rasa.

[The new erato]

Malcolm Arnold's concerto for two violins is great fun BTW.

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

it was about the music, which is what I'm interested in and which is why I chose the VCs that I did: Berg, Barber (except for the last movement, which has never went over well with me anyway), Vaughan Williams, and the Bartok. These concertos, for me, are less concerned with virtuosity and more concerned with, as I already mentioned, giving some kind of narrative.

OK, then I can take your postings here as good suggestions