Leó Weiner: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in D major, Op. 41 (1958/191

[Toni]

Leó Weiner enjoyed rapid success even as a young composer and music teacher. As a composer, he won every prize available in Hungary at the time. At the age of 23, he became an associate professor at the Budapest Academy of Music in 1908. As a music teacher, he trained and influenced many Hungarian musicians over the years. The Austrian knowledge network Austria-Forum counts a whole series of well-known Hungarian musicians among his students: Géza Anda, Antal Doráti, Andor Foldes, Louis Kentner, György Kurtág, György Sebők, Georg Solti, Ede Zathureczky, Zoltán Székely, Sándor Végh, Dénes Kovács, János Starker, Tibor Varga, the Lehner Quartet, the Magyar Quartet and the Bartók Quartet were all his students.

After initial success with his Serenade Op. 3, Weiner soon published two sonatas for violin and piano that are typical of his early compositional style: refreshing music, influenced by the early Romantic irony of Mendelssohn, Schumann and Bizet, full of lyrical, singing melodies, but without being weighed down by heavy thoughtfulness. It is directly appealing, independent music, influenced by Hungarian folklore, but without directly quoting it, as in the case of Kodály and Bartók. When Weiner retired from teaching and had more time on his hands, he reflected on the concertante elements of his early works in light of new developments in European music and reworked his violin sonatas into four-movement violin concertos. Weiner regarded these concertos as independent works in his opus catalogue, as their orchestration highlighted previously hidden qualities of the original pieces.  This is how the Violin Concerto in D major was created in 1950, based on the Violin Sonata op. 9, written in 1911, which Weiner had dedicated to Jenő Hubay. However, the manuscript was not published. Since the manuscript is dated 22 May 1958, it can be assumed that Weiner continued to work on the composition and later completed it as other works with higher opus numbers. This violin concerto thus seems to have been Leó Weiner's last completed composition. There was no premiere during Weiner's lifetime. The premiere of this concerto did not take place until May 2003, performed by violinist Vilmos Szabadi in connection with a CD studio recording. In the meantime, there are now further CD recordings of this refreshingly youthful violin concerto.

More see:
https://unbekannte-violinkonzerte.jimdofree.com/e-3/weiner/

[Richard Moss]

Toni,

I followed your link to Weiner's VC No. 1 but also found there a link to the notes about, and performance of, a 4-violin concerto by Ludwig Maurer, which I hope to listen to over the festive season.  His dates (1789 - 1878) suggest he should be right in the middle of the 'romantic' UC mandate.  Apparently at the time he was a very famous German violinist who spent most of his life in Russia but, to my limited knowledge, has since sunk into oblivion (so perhaps a UC candidate??)

The Youtube link to to this work is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9V6lYDkT5k

Season's best wishes to you and all at UC

Richard

[eschiss1]

Maurer's been mentioned here before but not yet been discussed at length.

[semloh]

Toni, I can't speak about Maurer, but I have never thought of Leó Weiner as falling within the UC "romantic" remit. Can you explain why you feel it appropriate to include him here?

[eschiss1]

AFAIK Weiner was Romantically-inclined in harmony and otherwise throughout his life, is there some information otherwise? Here's the violin sonata no.1 (1911) on which the work is closely based apparently. (There are sound samples @ Hyperion.) (His later 2nd string quartet (1921), digitized by me- poorly as usual, I fear- from parts provided by the local Uni - suggests too that he was equally inclined Romantically a decade later.)

[eschiss1]

Are we talking btw about the Naxos recording of the first violin concerto, which has probably even more a propos sound samples/complete sound streams than the work (the violin sonata) on which the work is based? ("The Violin Concerto No. 1 is a masterly orchestration of his Violin Sonata, Op. 9, alternating between the playful and the dramatic. The performance heard here restores 115 bars that were cut from the fourth movement, making this the first complete recording.")

[eschiss1]

Further, according to Kassai's notes to the Naxos recording:
"Only minor changes were made to the violin part of the Sonata – there are no new musical elements in the Concerto." So it's essentially the same as the 1911 work, orchestrated, and almost certainly should fit in our orbit if the original does; there are enough recordings of the original to be able to locate a YouTube recording of one of them. I agree in principle that the onus for answering the question belongs to the poster, and that while it wasn't difficult for me to find the answer, it is in no wise my job; but... still curious why you have "never thought of Leó Weiner as falling within the UC "romantic" remit". On the basis of what works?...