Violin Concerto

Solo violin in dialogue with the orchestra, where song outranks display.

Related

RomanticConcertoSonata FormViolin

The violin concerto puts the string instrument closest to the human voice in front of the orchestra. The soloist must sing long lines and also hold ground against the full band in fast passagework.

Origins and dates

In the Baroque, Vivaldi and Bach wrote violin concertos in which solo and tutti alternate. In the Classical period Mozart's five tightened the structure. In the nineteenth century Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bruch, Tchaikovsky and Brahms made the genre a test for every soloist.

Listening features

Notice how the solo enters, either after the tutti or with the theme at once. Listen for double stops, harmonics and rapid position shifts, and for vibrato on long notes. A cadenza often closes the first movement, the slow movement sings like an aria, and the finale uses dance rhythm or rondo.

Composers and works

Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bruch, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius.

Lineage

It grows from the Baroque concerto and concerto grosso and leads to twentieth-century concertos and the sinfonia concertante. Its cadenza tradition also passes to the piano concerto.

Misconceptions

A violin concerto does not always win by display; many passages are extremely quiet. The cadenza is not always in the first movement, nor always the soloist's own composition.

Sources

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "Concerto" — definitions and dating checked, not quoted
• Boris Schwarz, Great Masters of the Violin — repertoire checked, not quoted

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.