I never knew this; Very moving for a fellow late starter. Makes me even more grateful: From Bach to Bartók, many of the great keyboard concertos have been written by composers for themselves. More of the famous violin concertos have been written for others to play. Sibelius wrote his for a kind of ghostly self. He was a failed violinist. He had begun lessons late, at fourteen, but then “the violin took me by storm, and for the next ten years it was my dearest wish, my overriding ambition, to become a great virtuoso.” In fact, aside from the double handicap of his late start and the provincial level of even the best teaching available in Finland, he had neither the physical coordination nor the temperament for such a career. In 1890-91, when he was in Vienna studying composition with Robert Fuchs and Karl Goldmark, he played in the conservatory orchestra (its intonation gave him headaches), and on January 9, 1891, he auditioned for the Philharmonic. “When he got back to his room,” we read in Erik Tawaststjernas biography, “Sibelius broke down and wept. Afterwards he sat at the piano and began to practice scales.” With that he gave up, though a diary entry in 1915 records a dream of being twelve and a virtuoso. His Violin Concerto is, in any event, imbued both with his feeling for the instrument and the pain of his farewell to his “dearest wish” and “overriding ambition.” The second and third movements proceed from a lesser level of structural ambition, which does not mean, however, that the Adagio is anything other than one of the most moving pages Sibelius ever achieved. Between its introductory measures and main theme there is a fascinating disparity. Clarinets and oboes in pairs suggest an idea of rather tentative tone, one also in which something survives of Sibeliuss early passion for Wagner. This is a gentle beginning, leading to the entry of the solo violin with a melody of vast breadth. Sonoro ed espressivo, it speaks in tones we know well and that touch us deeply. The world and the gestures evoked are the world and the gestures of Beethoven, particularly those of the Cavatina in the B-flat major Quartet, Opus 130. Sibelius never found, perhaps never sought, such a melody again: This, too, is farewell. Very lovely, later in the movement, is the sonorous fantasy that accompanies the melody (now in clarinet and bassoon) with scales, all pianissimo, broken octaves moving up in the violin, and with a delicate rain of slowly descending scales in flutes and soft strings. Start @ 5:40 or 6:30 https://youtube/watch?v=_50oQgt1uJY
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 23:44:31 +0000
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