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Mu // Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major Op.35
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major Op.35 Movement 1 and 3
Violinist Phumthana Mu
Collaborative Pianist Pingka Sirisujinte
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major Op.35
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.
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.
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.
00:06 1st Movement - Allegro moderato
18:46 3rd Movement - Finale: Allegro vivacissimo
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