Nielsen's Violin Concerto

[Alan Howe]

While not exactly obscure, Nielsen's Violin Concerto must nonetheless surely rank as one of the more unsung great works by a great composer. I'm not exactly sure why, but I wonder whether it may have something to do with getting the mix right in performance between feeling and objectivity: too much of the former in Nielsen seems inappropriate in a way that it doesn't in a contemporary such as, say, Elgar. Thus, with the concerto's easy fund of melody and it often easygoing character, it is perhaps tempting for the soloist to inject too much sentimental feeling into his or her performance. Anyway, I wonder what other members think of this bridesmaid among great VCs?

[Mykulh]

It has been one of favorite violin concertos since I first bought it on a Turnabout LP with Tibor Varga about 40 years ago. I, too, have never understood why it did not make the jump into the standard repertory. Lazy fiddlers, I assume!

[shamokin88]

Interesting question. I came upon it from Yehudi Menuhin's recording during the 1950s. I was already familiar with five of the six symphonies and several shorter works. I had right away - I'm writing of those days - a feeling of mild indignation on hearing it. Why didn't the piece seem to work? And I've never really figured out what the problem is - an imbalance between virtuosity and rhetoric perhaps?

It is as if it has all the right ingredients though but pains were not taken in the kitchen.

Well, it isn't exactly my problem. I don't have to worry about it. And I basically ignore the piece.

[Dylan]

Interesting: as a great admirer of the symphonies I too have always found the VC oddly unsatisfactory. Admittedly, as a result I haven't listened to it for a long time, and not having listened to it for a long time I'm now unable to put my finger on the problem (!); but as far as I can recall I always had the feeling that the three movements didn't seem to belong together, and that the concerto never quite added up to the sum of its individual parts? In particular I seem to recall the jocularity of the finale hadn't been "earned" in some way? But prompted by this discussion I'll have to give it another go...(Actually, at the risk of heresy, I've never been a fan of any of Nielsen's concertos; I think his heart and head were with the symphony, and the intrinsic display character of the concerto was foreign to his nature...)

[Alan Howe]

but as far as I can recall I always had the feeling that the three movements didn't seem to belong together, and that the concerto never quite added up to the sum of its individual parts?

Actually, that's a very interesting perspective on the piece; it's certainly true that, after the passion of the preceding movements, the finale is peculiarly downbeat. For me, though, that's part of the fascination...

[chill319]

Echoing points made by other members, I would say that the bittersweet last movement of Nielsen's concerto lacks a certain jaunty panache that many popular concertos emphasize in their final movement. Many of us will value the Nielsen concerto all the more for finding an alternative and perhaps more musical closing rhetoric. That said, evading expectations never eases entry to the canon. Repeated hearings are needed. Without Heifetz's insistent championship, would the Sibelius VC be well known today?

If I may add a personal note on the reception of the Nielsen VC: The Beethovenian sweep and nobility of Nielsen's symphonies 3, 4, and 5, with their hard-fought triumphs over both tragedy and irony, made him a composer to watch in the early 1970s. Certainly the *distinctiveness* of his compositional voice was the other important half of the equation. But had Nielsen been introduced strictly though more lyrical works, personal and masterful though they be, his star would not have shone so brightly, for me at least.

When Turnabout's budget recording of the concerto with Varga was released, the callow among us, such as myself, noted its dull cover, its dull acoustic, its dull pressing, and especially, its "dull" aesthetic, which had no call for battling timpani or obsessive snare drums. Budget, and for good reason, I thought.

It took me decades to listen to the Nielsen concerto with Mykulh's mature sensibility. Now I treasure the work, and never fail to think of it each time another concert performance of Tchaikovsky's VC is announced.