{ Program Notes
instrument— was worth the wait. As
Brahms would later do with his Violin
Concerto for Joseph Joachim, Mendelssohn constantly sought David’s advice and
scrupulously tailored his concerto to the
violinist’s skills and musical personality.
Mendelssohn is usually regarded as a
conservative composer, who despite his
allegiance to Romanticism, followed the
classical forms and feeling of Mozart and
Haydn more closely than did his contemporaries. But Mendelssohn was also a
true Romantic who felt free to break the
rules of the classical concerto.
First Movement: The breaking of old
rules begins immediately as the violinist
launches the buoyant principal theme in
the second measure, dispensing with the
customary orchestral exposition. The key
of E minor adds a touch of poignancy to
this expansive, openhearted melody.
The most magical moment of this
sonata-form movement comes at the end
of the development section when in a
hushed, mysterious passage the soloist begins searching for the home key. Just a she
seems to have found it, Mendelssohn pulls
a surprise: launching the soloist’s cadenza,
which is customarily placed after the recapitulation just before the movement ends.
It concludes with chains of rapid arpeggios
that continue as the orchestra reprises the
principal theme, thus binding cadenza
seamlessly to recapitulation.
At movement’s end, we hear a lone
bassoon holding onto the pitch B. That
note then rises a half step for the new key
of C major for the second-movement
Andante, which the soloist begins
after a brief orchestral bridge passage.
This movement is in three-part song
form—most appropriate here because
Mendelssohn has given the soloist one
of his “songs without words.” The middle
section interjects passionate agitation
amid the lyricism.
Another bridge provides harmonic and
tempo transition to the E-major finale.
Here we have one of Mendelssohn’s
celebrated scherzos: a joyous, scampering
romp for the soloist. Conjuring up the
world of A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
the woodwinds are agile companions to
the violin’s gambols.
28 O v ertur e |
www. bsomusic .org
Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two
clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani and strings.
Symphony No. 1 in E Minor
Jean Sibelius
Born December 8, 1865 in Hämeenlinna,
Finland; died September 20, 1957
in Järvenpää, Finland
As the 19th century was about to turn
into the 20th, Finland was engaged in
a struggle for survival. For much of the
century, she had been an autonomous
grand duchy of H