Favorite Violin Concertos

[Thatfabulousalien]

If there's a thread about this (which I can't find anywhere  ) please don't murder me.


Anyway, some of my picks include:

Ligeti
Bartok - No 2
Schoenberg
Stravinsky
Sibelius

...off the top of my head

[Wanderer]

A simple forum search was all you had to do:

Your Top Violin Concertos!

What are your favorite 20th Century Violin Concertos?

Top three favourite 20th Century violin concertos

[vandermolen]

Allan Pettersson: Violin Concerto No.2

[James]

Bach (all), Bartok (both), Berg, Stravinsky, Gubaidulina .. those are the main ones for me.

[Cato]

Busoni!

https://www.youtube.com/v/sQd8yQ-fx3c

[Trout]

Some I couldn't live without:

Ligeti
Schoenberg
Sibelius
Vasks
Pettersson 2
Chin
Gubaidulina - In Tempus Praesens
Bartók 2
Berg
Finzi - Introit
Vivaldi - Four Seasons

[vandermolen]

Agree about Trout's Finzi and Vasks choices also Shostakovich No.1, especially the passacaglia movement.
Malcolm Williamson's VC, Alwyn's VC which I only discovered recently plus I like the ones by Bliss and Miaskovsky.
The Williamson has a very moving last movement - an underrated composer I think.

[James]

Gubaidulina ..

Offertorium ..

[Turner]

Quite easy. So far they are:

- Mozart Concerto 3
- Mendelssohn op.64
- Elgar
- Shostakovich 1
- Pettersson 2
- Gubaidulina 1 "Offertorium"

[Mirror Image]

A few off the top of my head:

Shostakovich (1)
Stravinsky
Bartok (2)
Barber
Berg
Sibelius
Szymanowski (both)
Part (Tabula Rasa) (essentially a concerto for two violins, so I'm cheating a bit here)

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Ligeti
Pintscher 'en sourdine'
Adès
Dean (both)
Pateras 'Immediata'
Hosokawa


There are others but I'll have to work out how to narrow them down.....

[Mirror Image]

I didn't know I made this thread 

I'm actually more surprised that you didn't choose Berg's VC as one of your favorites. You need to be horsewhipped.

[Monsieur Croche]

I'm actually more surprised that you didn't choose Berg's VC as one of your favorites. You need to be horsewhipped.

If you haven't noticed by now that our younger generation compers tend to choose mid to late 20th century and 21st century works over earlier works, I'm surprised.  It is exactly what I would be doing at their age, and was doing at their age relative to my own generation 'back then.'  It is only natural the more current music is what interests them and speaks to them the most, or "it is what they do," lol.

I'll be my conservative self here, and cautiously name what I think are the 'top three of all time,' to date, without at all dismissing concerti written later.

Beethoven / Berg / Stravinsky (honorable mention, Prokofiev 1st :-)


Best regards.

[The new erato]

Good to see the very unconventional Beethoven being mentioned. I like it a lot too.

[vandermolen]

I like the Roy Harris too which I've just discovered.

[springrite]

Berg
Brahms
Pettersson 2
Elgar
Barber
Beethoven

[amw]

My overall favourite violin concerto is probably Bach's reconstructed D minor concerto BWV 1052. The writing is so natural and idiomatic for the violin that, for me, hearing the harpsichord version feels like listening to a pale imitation of the real thing. (favourite recording: hard to pick one but maybe Elfa Rún Kristinsdottir/Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop)

Somewhere else in a list of favourites would be the two Bach violin concertos that have survived, the a minor and E major (BWV 1041 & 1042). Harder for me to come up with recordings, since in the E major I kind of imprinted on the grand détaché of Stern/Bernstein and Standage/Pinnock (the first two recordings I heard) and now the more normal staccato opening sounds weird, but at the same time, I wouldn't call either recording a favourite anymore, not with Ibragimova and Carmignola and Beyer and Café Zimmermann and Huggett for competition. Actually the G minor BWV 1056 is the only one I don't quite love, for whatever reason, though Ibragimova very nearly convinces me I do.

Mendelssohn E minor, probably the greatest violin concerto of the 19th century. The recording I return to most often is Mutter/Masur.

Tchaikovsky. Would be even better if he'd cut the two last movements, but I guess you can't have everything. Mullova/Ozawa or Mutter/Previn, plus a sidelong glance at Kopatchinskaja/Currentzis.

Dvořák. Suk/Neumann is still supreme, but again, sidelong glance at Mutter/Honeck.

Taneyev's Suite de concert, which is basically a violin concerto in disguise from a composer who is normally far too serious write something so frivolous as a violin concerto. I mean seriously though it's great. Oistrakh/Malko is the one to have.

Bartók 2 is another piece that has always stuck with me from the first hearing of it, despite its admitted longueurs. That first recording is also still the best, particularly for using Bartók's original ending instead of the revised one most violinists play. Mullova/Salonen

Britten. Honestly, this has also grown massively on me, to my surprise. I've accumulated four recordings and heard quite a few more, tops still being Hope/Watkins

Barber. It's not just in my old age that I've grown soft; I've had the softest of spots for this concerto since I was about eight. Ehnes/Tovey is a newcomer to my collection but pretty much spot on.

Dutilleux L'arbre des songes. I actually haven't heard a bad performance on CD (seeing as I haven't heard the Stern) but my go-to is usually Amoyal/Dutoit.

Ligeti. I can never decide between Gawriloff/Boulez and Kopatchinskaja/Eötvös, so, get both. <_<

Holliger. There's only one recording, Zehetmair/SWR. This is a nearly 50 minute piece that sounds insanely difficult to play, even by the standards of violin concertos, so I guess no surprise. It's incredibly powerful and moving, imo. I'm not sure how else to describe it.

Feldman Violin and Orchestra. The best _____ and Orchestra piece and unlike anything else Feldman ever wrote. Though I guess you could say that about a lot of his stuff. I'm fairly satisfied with Faust/Rundel.

[Karl Henning]

Good to see the very unconcentional Beethoven being mentioned. I like it a lot too.

Cool.  And it is curious to find a LvB score which remains somewhat controversial 

[Karl Henning]

A simple forum search was all you had to do:

Your Top Violin Concertos!

What are your favorite 20th Century Violin Concertos?

Top three favourite 20th Century violin concertos

I applaud you for eschewing murder  0:)

[aesthetic]

A few as-yet-unmentioned favourites:

Prokofiev 2
Rautavaara
Goldmark 1
Glass 1
Shostakovich 2
Martinů 2