Dvorak's Violin Concerto

[karlhenning]

You just ignored Glazunov's.

Don't make me explain "e.g." to you.

[Lethevich]

It's a real gem of a concerto. One of those works that are of excellent quality, but neglected, and offer a great surprise to an inquisitive listener. The piano concerto is similar in obscurity, but lesser quality IMHO (still a nice discovery though).

[m_gigena]

Don't make me explain "e.g." to you.

It seems I ignored it.

[karlhenning]

 

[Mark]

Well, all this talk of this concerto forced me to dig it out and listen anew. Now I'm done listening, part of me regrets the 30 minutes of my life I won't get back. Yes, the adagio is lovely (though a bit too wayward for my liking). And yes, there's that wonderful Mozartian spring in the step that opens the memorable finale. But there's little to hook me in the first movement.

Put on the Tchaikovsky, and within seconds you're grabbed. Same with the Mendelssohn and Brahms ... and if the opening of the Sibelius doesn't hook you, then you are, in fact, dead. Nothing in the Dvorak captures or fires the imagination at the outset, and frankly, I believe this really could be the reason why it's not better known: you can't hum it in the shower!

[m_gigena]

Twenty days ago Nikolaj Znaider played the Nielsen concerto with Janowski in Stockholm. Listenable in this part of the world through... OperaShare.
The same with Tasmin Little's Britten, which she played last year in Manchester.

[m_gigena]

you can't hum it in the shower!

But you can learn to whistle it.



I won a freak tag for whistling the spiccato coda (the part marked as pp leggiero in the score) in public. I did it spiccato, of course.

[JoshLilly]

if the opening of the Sibelius doesn't hook you, then you are, in fact, dead.

Does it count if when it's playing I wish I was?   

[dtwilbanks]

and if the opening of the Sibelius doesn't hook you, then you are, in fact, dead.

Amen, Brother Mark!  0:)

[Mark]

Does anyone else hear liberal splashes of something faintly Paganini-esque in the Concerto's opening movement? Not a criticism, just an observation.

[Lethevich]

Does anyone else hear liberal splashes of something faintly Paganini-esque in the Concerto's opening movement? Not a criticism, just an observation.

I may be wrong, but I believe that Paganini inserted more than a few short folk tunes into his works, albeit in a much transformed way to allow for the virtuosity of the pieces to remain high, which Dvořák also did (although not in a virtuoso way). I can't recognise much more similarities, primerally because Dvořák is such a good writer for orchestra, wheras Paganini... wasn't, and it's hard for me to get past that

[dtwilbanks]

Thanks to this thread, I just bought a Dvorak v cto. 

[m_gigena]

Thanks to this thread, I just bought a Dvorak v cto. 

Which one?

[dtwilbanks]

Which one?

[m_gigena]

Not a bad concerto. It goes on for rather a long time. I always find Dvorak's works attractive on the first 2-3 hearings but that the music doesn't wear too well after that. If he'd made the first and third movements of the violin concerto shorter, the work might be more appreciated. Good slow movement, however. The work has done quite well with recordings over the years.

Hi Harry, did you see I uploaded Brahms Double concerto to the Broadcast Corner thread? It's from this year Europakonzert in Berlin, Lisa Batiashvili plays it with Mork, Rattle and the Berlin PO.

[hautbois]

Just listened to the Accardo/Davis/Concertgebouw. It sounds like a shadow of the Brahms violin concerto, fortunately, what a great shadow! So overwhelmingly underrated. 

Howard

[Brian]

Well, all this talk of this concerto forced me to dig it out and listen anew. Now I'm done listening, part of me regrets the 30 minutes of my life I won't get back. Yes, the adagio is lovely (though a bit too wayward for my liking). And yes, there's that wonderful Mozartian spring in the step that opens the memorable finale. But there's little to hook me in the first movement.

Which performance? The opening violin solos are impossibly hard to get right; Midori, for instance, makes you fall asleep, while some violinists are able to use the flourishes to grip your emotions the way Bruch does in his intro to the First VC.

I myself am growing to like the Dvorak Violin Concerto more and more on each listening. The first movement's second subject - the one that only gets played a single time - is exceptionally beautiful, and the slow movement ... and the finale ... dang, what a piece!

I like the opening minute or so of the Piano Concerto, and the rest am happy to listen to, but not thrilled. The piano part is unusually intelligent, me thinks, which makes for a change in pace from the usual flashiness.

[Keemun]

I'll see if it's available on eMusic ... add it to the 99 other CDs awaiting download.

There's a nice performance on eMusic by Ilya Kaler / Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (Naxos).

[m_gigena]

There's a nice performance on eMusic by Ilya Kaler / Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (Naxos).

The Suk/Ancerl can be downloaded from any decent P2P network. 

[Mark]

I may be wrong, but I believe that Paganini inserted more than a few short folk tunes into his works, albeit in a much transformed way to allow for the virtuosity of the pieces to remain high, which Dvořák also did (although not in a virtuoso way). I can't recognise much more similarities, primerally because Dvořák is such a good writer for orchestra, wheras Paganini... wasn't, and it's hard for me to get past that

Can't think why, but I felt myself reaching for Paganini's Second Violin Concerto after hearing the opening movement of Dvorak's. Something about the violin part just triggered a connection in my mind.

Which performance?

See below ...

There's a nice performance on eMusic by Ilya Kaler / Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (Naxos).

This is the second of the two I own, and I one I listened to this afternoon.