On October 26, 27 and 28, acclaimed guest conductor Fabien Gabel leads Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, featuring violinist Karen Gomyo. In this post, learn more about Tchaikovsky’s Romantic masterpiece and the surprising relationship that inspired it.

 

Tchaikovsky wrote his Violin Concerto in March 1878 while staying amid the breathtaking mountains of Clarens, Switzerland on Lake Geneva. The work was spurred by a visit from the violinist Iosif Kotek, who had been asking Tchaikovsky for a violin concerto for some time. After playing through Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole together, Tchaikovsky’s imagination was fired with ideas.

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The work is filled with lyric melody suggestive of the Slavic and Russian folk song that so often found its way into Tchaikovsky’s ballets. Despite the difficulties of the solo part, the violin focuses on decorating the theme rather than on presenting purely technical passages. The second theme of the first movement has often been cited as an example of Tchaikovsky at his lyric best. Both themes are displayed predominantly in the extended written-out cadenza. An almost overly expressive Canzonetta in the distant and unexpected key of G minor serves as the second movement. In the lively finale, the influence of folk song is most strongly heard, both in the harmonies and in melodies built upon descending fourths. Taken as a whole, the work turned out to be one of Tchaikovsky’s most creative and least pretentious works, as well as a measure of how well he was able briefly to detach himself from his personal problems.

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First movement
This gives way to the entrance of the soloist, who introduces the first movement’s main melody, one of Tchaikovsky’s most beautiful themes. The soloist’s music becomes faster and more virtuoso as it unfolds, until we reach a new theme marked “con molto espressione” (with great expression). Though related to the main melody, this theme is warmer, with a faster harmonic rhythm. As it unfolds and develops, the soloist’s music once again becomes increasingly virtuoso, but now with added emotional intensity. The soloist’s runs build to a grand orchestral statement in which the main theme returns in a powerful, heroic guise.

 

This soon disintegrates into fragmentary, unstable music, until the soloist reenters with a delicate variation on the main theme. This builds once again to a heroic, orchestral version of the theme. The music becomes more intense, until it breaks off, leaving the soloist alone. The soloist then plays a cadenza, an extended unaccompanied solo of great difficulty that features some of the violin’s highest notes.

 

After revisiting the main theme and the second theme, the cadenza ends with a trill, the traditional signal for the orchestra to reenter, and the flute begins to play a reprise of the main theme. After a reprise of the second theme, the orchestra and soloist race to the end of the movement in a thrilling coda.​

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Third movement

Just as the second movement is about to end, the finale begins with a bang. Parallel to the first movement, an animated orchestral introduction leads to the entrance of the soloist, who then introduces the dancing main theme of the movement. In place of the noble melodies of the previous movements, Tchaikovsky turns now to the earthy sounds of Russian folk music, casting the soloist as a virtuoso Russian fiddler. Impressive passages for the soloist lead to a new theme that appears above a rustic drone bass. Languorous at first, the tune takes on a variety of moods in a series of variations, from fast and brilliant to slow and dreamy. The soloist then accelerates to a reprise of the main theme. After a reprise of the second theme, the main theme then reappears once more, leading to an exhilarating coda.