Classical 4: Beethoven’s Violin Concerto

(A) Introduction 

I mentioned my classical music studies to a friend who’s far more versed in this than I am, and explained how I was working my way through Paganini’s violin concertos.

At one point he said to me: “you should listen to the Beethoven violin concerto, or Brahms”.  Sure, why not!  I tracked down the ol’ Ludwig Van’s violin concerto and queued it up.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) is one of the giants of classical music.  A veritable Beatles of classical music: he’s on top of the heap, and no one can touch him.

According to the Naxos website, “Beethoven did much to enlarge the possibilities of music and widen the horizons of later generations of composers. To his contemporaries he was sometimes a controversial figure, making heavy demands on listeners both by the length and by the complexity of his writing, as he explored new fields of music.”

Uh-oh.  I’m not so sure I should be getting into this so early into the project.  But, here I am, so I’m going to take a whack at his violin concerto.  He only wrote one, which should help limit my scope of inquiry.

Beethoven is a transitional figure between Romanticism and the Classical period.  He started out as a Classical-style composer, then moved into Romantic music later on in his life.  He bridges the gap between the formality and structure of the Classical and the more freewheeling emotionality of the Romantic composers.

Beethoven was so huge that his works need to be divided into three sections: the Early, Middle and Late periods.  His Early stuff is mostly him emulating his most influential predecessors – Mozart and Haydn.  Even though he was emulating past masters, he was still pushing boundaries and making developments of his own. 

His Middle period is centred around him slowly going deaf.  That must have driven him insane.  Think about it – you’re a music composer, music is the core of your life, and you’re slowly and inevitably losing your ability to hear it.  That’s horror that’s almost Lovecraftian in its intensity…  His middle period is pretty ambitious, with large-scale works that deal with heroism and struggle.  This period has many of his best works. 

The Late period was a time of intellectual exploration and intensely personal expression.  This is his weirdest period – he really did a lot of experimentation.  I guess this would be his ‘prog’ phase?

(B) Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61 (1806)

Beethoven was prolific – this is published work #61.  More productive than Frank Zappa!  The violin concerto is part of his Middle period.

 

The Internet tells me that Beethoven wrote the concerto for Franz Clement, a leading violinist at the time.  It wasn’t very popular when it first came out – piano concertos were the big draws at the time.  And because it’s not a flamboyant showpiece for the violin, the big virtuosos of the era were disinclined to play it.  In fact, it didn’t become popular till the 1840s, when it was performed by an orchestra under the direction of Felix Mendelssohn, another composer.

 

I. Allegro ma non troppo.  Fast and lively, but not too much.  “Ma non troppo” is Italian for “but don’t go overboard with it, buddy”.

 

Starts out with a drum.  The five drum notes are apparently the main musical motif of the concerto (so says Wikipedia).  So, I should keep an ear out for it.

 

When the violin solo starts, it rises gracefully from the orchestra instead of flying out of it as it does in Paganini.  The complexity and energy of the solo builds gradually, and the orchestra plays a more active role in giving the solo some structure.  In fact, the solo is broken up, interspersed with the orchestra, which makes it more engaging.  The violinist eventually gets to let loose, with the orchestra taking a break to watch.  But even then it’s not a blinding display of speed and dexterity (though there’s no shortage of technical impressiveness), it’s more of an indulgent show of the violinist’s capacity for emotion and melody.

 

II. Larghetto.  Larghetto = slow, but not as slow as largo.  Roughly 60-66 bpm.

This movement is very mellow and ballad-like.  Very sad.  He was going deaf when he wrote this concerto, and I can only imagine his emotional state when he was writing.  If this movement is any indication, it must’ve been heartbreaking.

 

III. Rondo

This movement starts with one of the main riffs from the first piece.  I suspect that’s pretty conventional practice in a concerto.  Is it only the rondo that does that, or do you get a riff from the first movement in any third movement of a concerto?  In any case, the rondo re-introduces the riff in the most blatant way that I’ve heard so far.

 

I really like the rondo.  It’s becoming my friend, a helpful and familiar guide as I slog through classical music.

 

(C) Commentary

This doesn’t have a wild violin solo.  It’s not a showcase for virtuosity, it seems richer and deeper and more stately than just showing off.  It’s like comparing an Yngwie Malmsteen song to a Beatles song.  Sure, the former is awesome and powerful in its guitar solo virtuosity.  But the latter just has so much more going on, it’s a complete song from start to finish rather than an afterthought to showcase a guitar solo.

 

That’s not to say that the violin player gets to take it easy in this piece.  The solo is still technically demanding, even if it’s not full of the insane virtuoso tricks of the Paganini concertos.  But overall, I feel more… satisfied… after listening to Beethoven’s violin concerto than I did after Paganini.

 

Paganini was reaching his prime when Beethoven died.  Considering how huge Beethoven was, I imagine that Paganini was familiar with Beethoven’s stuff.  The difference between their styles seems to exemplify the difference between Classical and Romantic composers: Beethoven is more restrained and structured, while Paganini goes madly off into violin-driven excess. 

 

(D) What I’ve Learned

-Beethoven is a giant in the classical music world.  He’s so huge that his works are divided into three eras.  He ended up going deaf halfway through his career, but he kept composing.  The man had balls.

-His violin concerto is noticeably different from Paganini’s – as in, I actually noticed the difference!  It didn’t sound like just a jumble of classical music instruments, which is my usual impression when I hear it in shopping malls or classical music stations in Dad’s car…