Ever wonder what\u00a0 sort of concertos exist for the violin beyond the marvelous mainstays from Mozart,\u00a0 Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bruch, Brahms and Sibelius? Well- there\u2019s a lot out there.<\/p>\n
There are a number of tremendous 20th<\/sup>. C concerti that are now pretty well established in the repertoire, such as those by Shostakovich (particularly his First), Barber, Berg, Bart\u00f3k (particularly his Second) and Prokofiev. Then there are those works which are still relatively rarely sighted in the concert hall, but have been recorded and discussed quite broadly- Korngold\u2019s, Shostakovich\u2019s Second (even greater than the First), the Khachaturian (not a fan!). More recently, there are modern classics by Lutoslawski, John Adams, John Corigliano and Alfred Schnittke. All major works, none heard as often as I\u2019d like live, but all well known among musicians and readily available on disc. Today we’re looking \u00a0farther out, towards the uncharted frontier of the repertoire.<\/p>\n Of course, there\u2019s no point in directing you towards completely obscure works- if you can\u2019t listen to them, there\u2019s really no point. Here then are 10 pieces you should listen to today. If you can buy the CD, you should- downloading a stream does nothing to support future recordings of unknown music. Vote with your pocketbook for a recording industry that continues to make great music widely available. There\u2019s a lot more out there. This list, while “official” and “all time” is by no means exclusive or complete.<\/p>\n Which works do you think are the unknown gems of the violin repertoire? Share your thoughts in the comments.<\/p>\n The numbering\/ordering of the 11 works on this list is completely arbitrary.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Schumann wrote his final orchestral work for his very close friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim. Joachim expressed great early enthusiasm for the piece, but made a fool of himself during a run through of it with orchestra and then suppressed the work, stipulating it could only be published 100 years after his death. The story of how the work came to light is one of the strangest and funniest in music history. The Violin Concerto has none of the quicksilver wit or boundless fluency of rhetoric that so animates Schumann\u2019s early piano music. Instead, it is austere, strange and often incredibly beautiful music. The slow movement may well be the most haunting\u00a0few minutes of music written in the 19th<\/sup> C- I can scarcely think of anything so sad and fragile.<\/p>\n https:\/\/youtu.be\/YLod6Ra6f08<\/p>\n <\/p>\n John McCabe\u2019s death in 2015 was a devastating blow to British musical life. While by no means an unknown composer, the sheer magnitude of his accomplishment remains somewhat under recognized simply because so many of his major pieces await commercial recordings and regular performances. One such work is his Second Violin Concerto, a large-scale, bold, magnificent work which combines a sort of Bart\u00f3kian intensity and strength of character with a potent lyrical impulse. It was one of the pieces that those of us who admired and loved John were scrambling to record before he died. I\u2019m still scrambling.<\/p>\n\n
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