Programme Notes

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

Concerto in D major for violin and orchestra Op 61

Allegro ma non troppo

Larghetto

Rondo

The first nine bars of Beethoven's violin concerto not only exhibit his musical 'palette' at its most typical; they also constitute one of the subtlest and most elegant opening statements in the classical repertoire. No strings are heard at the beginning The woodwind instruments have the task of raising the curtain on this most lyrical of concertos, in a blend of sounds peculiarly Beethovenish. But more importantly, it is the tympanist, in the first and fifth bars, who sets out the almost absurdly simple theme that is to have such significance as the music proceeds: four repeated crotchets open the way to a masterpiece aptly described by Donald Tovey as 'one of the most spacious concertos ever written.'

It is a remarkable thing about this, the first of the great 19th century violin concertos, that Beethoven achieves its sublimity by such unostentatious means. Too much so for some writers, who have smiled at the tunes for their sheer obviousness: what is the second subject of the first movement but a rising scale of D major? But the simplest ideas produce the greatest art. The four repeated drum notes become the basis for some of Beethoven's most surprising and even at times witty inventions. The Victorian musicologist George Grove, a Beethoven fanatic, told a story that these four notes came to Beethoven after he had lain awake listening irritably to a person shut out of a neighbouring house who kept knocking, four strokes at a time, trying to be let in. Apocryphal and absurd, Grove agreed, but the story at least showed how the commonplace, like, he thought, the daffodils in Wordsworth's poem, could be 'transmuted by the fires of genius into imperishable monuments.'

The clarity of texture, the sheer refinement of this music have much to do with Beethoven's profound feeling for the violin as a solo instrument. No more 'violinistic' a piece could be imagined, and this was embarrassingly demonstrated when Beethoven made an arrangement for piano and orchestra. This he did, probably against his better judgement, at the instigation of the pianist and composer Muzio Clementi when he came from London to visit Beethoven in Vienna. (In modern times, an arrangement of the concerto for clarinet and orchestra by Brian Matthews has recently been recorded by Michael Collins.)

The violin concerto itself was written in 1806, as a commission for Clementi's near-namesake Franz Clement, a gifted violinist and leader of the orchestra of Vienna's Theater an der Wien. Beethoven inscribed the work to him with a creaky pun on his 'clemency' to an impoverished composer. The Vienna theatre was the scene of the first performance in December 1806, during a public benefit concert at which the 26 year old Clement not only played Beethoven's concerto but also a sonata of his own, played on one string with the fiddle upside down. Also on the programme were works by Handel, Mozart and Cherubini, with the three movements of Beethoven's masterpiece distributed among them. Critics were not too impressed by Beethoven's contribution to the evening, though it can hardly be said to have been given a fair chance.

Clement survived this farcical event by many years, long enough to be seen in his old age by a young violinist who was to become one of the concerto's most famous interpreters, Joseph Joachim. As for the audience in 1806, whatever the critical view, they received the concerto rapturously, anticipating the affection with which it has been regarded ever since.

Programme Notes by Paul Vaughan ©

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