Violin Concerto in A major
Op. 8
Violin Concerto in A major, Op. 8 Mieczysław Karłowicz initially did not at all plan to become a composer. First, he ventured towards a career as a violin virtuoso, for several years taking lessons with famous Polish violin master Stanisław Barcewicz. Still at age nineteen, as he was leaving to study in Berlin, he must have dreamed of a career as a concert soloist, since he was taking entrance examinations for the studio of the famous Joseph Joachim. The unfavorable examination result - an experience in itself traumatic for the one taking the examination - did, however, have salutary consequences for Polish culture: it hastened the decision of the young musician - whom in the future a cruel fate was to deprive of long life - to concentrate further education efforts on the art of putting together tones. The Violin Concerto in A major (1902) crowns the first phase of Karłowiczs oeuvre, preceding the writing of his six symphonic poems (perhaps it was for this reason that it was dismissed by the artist himself with the unjust description of a schoolboys work). This work was written by Karłowicz with Barcewicz, the addressee of the dedication, in mind. But despite the fact that the work written was intended for a phenomenal virtuoso, it does not at all dazzle the listener with excessively overloaded pyrotechnics, with the exception of the initial measures of the first movement. In their opening, brisk fanfare, one can recognize the beginning fragments of Tchaikovskys Piano Concerto in B flat minor, with the difference, however, that the soloist in Karłowiczs work is presented with a task more difficult than that of the pianist: s/he must negotiate the trial of playing with clean intonation the massive chords comprising the primary theme. The subsequent portion of the first movement, based on two ideas contrasted traditionally in terms of expression and with the aid of a dominant tonal relationship (the second of them figures among the most beautiful cantilenas in the entire late Romantic concerto repertoire), no longer brings any such extreme surprises. Music of exceptional charm flows with a natural ease that is rare among such young composers. The second movement - a Romanza in the key of F major and in the spirit of Tchaikovskys music - is no doubt a distant memory, but at the same time a not at all unsuccessful attempt to compete with earlier famous Polish romances - Chopins Concerto No. 1 in E minor and Wieniawskis Concerto No. 2 in D minor. On the other hand, the optimistic Vivace assai served up as a finale, in contrast to the vast majority of Polish concerto works of that time, is devoid of even the faintest echo of folk motifs. This movement, maintained in the form of an effective rondo with two couplets, is crowned by a reminiscence of the primary theme of the first movement, bracketing the Concerto in an attractive manner. Marcin Gmys
- Editor: Antoni Cofalik
- Series: Strumento
- Language of edition: eng, pol
- Number of pages: 40+12
- Cover: softcover
- Type: piano reduction, solo part (instrument)
- Size: A4 vertical (210x297 mm)
