Concerto

“ Even instrumental music aims at dramatic effect, and fanciful incidents, and catastrophes are often suggested by the melodies and harmonies of a symphony, or concerto. These creations of the imagination are in themselves a source of interest and delight, wholly different, in their nature, from the pleasure conferred by mere sounds. How beautiful are the scenes, about to follow, depicted in the overtures to Der Freyschutz and Oberon; what wild diableries are not suggested by those wonderful compositions! ”

“ Un enthousiasme impossible a decrire, un veritable delire s'est manifeste dans le public a l'audition de ce concerto plein de charme rendu avec une perfection de fini, de precision, de nettete et d'expression qu'il serait impossible de surpasser et que bien peu de pianistes pourraient egaler. ”

“ This admirably illustrates Bach’s grasp of the true idea of a concerto, namely, that whatever the relations may be between the forces in respect of volume or sound, the whole treatment of the form must depend upon the healthy relation of function between that force which commands more and that which commands less attention. Ceteris paribus the individual, suitably placed, will command more attention than the crowd, whether in real life, drama or instrumental music. ”

“ Last evening I played at the Casino mobile, in a very fine saloon, my concerto in the form of a scena, and a pot-pourri with pianoforte accompaniment. As the room is very favourable for music, both of these had a very sensible effect upon the audience. The remainder of the concert, consisting of symphonies and pièces d’harmonie, was not of importance. ”

“ At night, after supper, I played the Strassburg concerto; it went as smooth as oil; every one praised the fine pure tone. A small clavichord was then brought in, on which I preluded, and played a sonata and the Fischer variations. Some of those present whispered to the Dean that he ought to hear me play in the organ style. ”

“ A concerto is a sonata for a solo instrument with orchestral accompaniment, the form being usually somewhat modified so as to adapt it to a composition in which there must [Pg 73] necessarily be opportunity for a good deal of technical display. There are usually but three movements in the concerto.
The great majority of concertos are for piano and orchestra, but examples of concertos for violin, cello, flute, oboe, and other solo instruments (all with orchestral accompaniment) have also been written. ”

“ Our admiration for musical gymnastics and tight-rope balancing is now leaking away so fast through the perforations of the paper rolls that the kind of display-piece known as the concerto is going out of fashion. The only sort of concerto destined to keep our favor is, I imagine, that of the Schumann or Brahms type, which depends for its effect not at all on display, but on sound musicianship alone. ”

“ It is not alone that he wrote [Pg 2] four symphonies of surpassing merit, two piano concertos, a violin concerto, a double concerto for violin and violoncello, songs, piano pieces, great set compositions like the Song of Destiny and the German Requiem, duos, trios, quartets, quintets, sextets, sestets, all manner of combinations for wood, for wind, for strings and voices; it is the sum total of high excellence, the stern, unyielding adherence to ideals sometimes almost frostily unhuman—in a word, the logical, consistent and philosophic bent of the man’s mind—that forces your homage. ”

“ No concerto solo or duet shall ever be performed at any of the society’s concerts; and if the directors shall think it expedient at any time to introduce vocal music with full orchestral accompaniments, it must be under the above limitations.’ Thus it appears that the performance of vocal music only entered conditionally into the original plan of the founders of the Philharmonic ”

“ The style of a concerto must be, at the same time, serious in thoughts and in their developments, graceful and brilliant, in order to bring forth the talent of execution of the virtuoso. Here is a double reef to avoid, and here many artists have been wrecked. Vieuxtemps and Leonard are the modern masters who have been the most successful in this difficult style ”

“ Respecting this last concert I gave in Vienna, the Musical journal spoke very favourably. Of the newest violin concerto (E-minor, C-major, E-major) it says: “Very difficult for the solo player as well as for those who accompany. A splendid, perfect composition; a fine flowing cantabile; striking modulations, replete with bold canonic imitations, an ever new, charming and happily calculated instrumentation. The melting adagio is especially captivating.” In conclusion it says: “As to the merits of this masterly artist, both here and throughout Germany there is but one opinion. ”

“ This artistic work is moreover conspicuous for the cheerful spirit that pervades it throughout. The admirable execution of this Concerto did great honour to the Composer, the Player and the whole Orchestra; and set thousands of hands among the audience in lively and continuous motion.
“Hereupon, Concert-Master Fischer surprised the Orchestra as well as the audience not a little, by falling in with the full Organ, in order to introduce the now ensuing chorus of the Finale, in C-Major. ”

“ This “tiny, tiny piano concerto” or group of “some small piano pieces,” as you prefer, is really a concerto of exceptional dimensions. Not only has it the three usual movements of the classical concerto, each large in plan, but a highly developed scherzo (though it does not bear that name) .
The first movement (Allegro non troppo, B-flat major, 4-4) begins with the initial statement of the first subject in dialogue for horn, piano, and woodwind.
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A cadenza for the piano leads to a tutti, in which both the first and the second subjects are given full play. ”

“ In the first movement of the Concerto we cannot reconcile ourselves to the noisy, somewhat common-place, principal subject, nor to the frequent and violent interruptions of the musical flow of the work. ”

“ The first Concerto dates from about 1715, and furnished two movements for the Water Music. It is written for two horns, two oboes, bassoon, two violins, violas and bass. The second Concerto in F major (for four horns, two oboes, bassoons, two violins, violas, cellos, basses and organ) ; and the third Concerto in D major (for two trumpets, four horns, drums, two oboes, bassoons, two violins, violas, cellos, organ) contains already nearly all the Firework Music with a less important orchestra, but with the Organ in addition. ”

“ When conceptions of musical form changed and the modern sonata style arose, the peculiar conditions of the concerto gave rise to problems the difficulty of which only the highest classical intellects could appreciate or solve. ”

“ On May 19, 1881, she played Chopin's Concerto in F minor at the Philharmonic, and 'by her brilliant execution of the florid passages, by the delicacy with which she rendered the fairylike fancies of the composer, and by the marked character resulting from her strong feeling for rhythm and accent, gave the concerto an adventitious interest.' [1] On May 13, 1882, she played at the Crystal Palace Liszt's 'Fantasia on the Ruins of Athens,' and on June 6 of the same year she gave a recital and was heard with pleasure in light pieces of Moskowski, Liszt, and Rubinstein. ”

“ And therefore we now demand more of the spiritual and less of the technical from our pianists. Music is the gainer thereby, and the old-time cacophonous concerto for pianoforte and orchestra will, we hope, be relegated to the limbo of things inutile. ”

“ At the London Musical Society's concerto of June 29, 1882, she played David's concerto in E minor with great success, and since that time has held a high position among English artists, her style being pure and refined, and her power of interpreting works of a high intellectual order being very remarkable. ”

“ On the night of 29 April 1800, while performing a solo part in his concerto at the Queen's House, and 'after having executed his first movement in a style equal to his best performance during any part of his life,' he was seized with an apoplectic fit. ”

“ It is unnecessary to speak of the other movements of concerto form, as the sectional structure that so easily results from the opposition between solo and orchestra is not of great disadvantage to slow movements and finales, which accordingly do not show important differences from the ordinary types of symphonic and chamber music. ”

“ To Schachtner too the father showed the blotted MS. of the first PF. concerto, and related the little fellow's answer to his objection that it was too difficult—'That is just why it is called a concerto; people must practise till they can play it,' upon which he set to work to try and play it himself. ”

“ Symphony in C (St. James's Hall, 18 June 1892) ; two concert overtures: (l) 'Les Travailleurs de la Mer' (1869) , and (2) 'Love's Labour's Lost' (1875) ; a concerto for piano-forte in A minor, and one for violin; Septet for wind instruments and double bass (1891) ”

“ Such fruits as these can only be offered by an artist who has discovered the true secret of life.
The last movement of the concertos is always the easiest; it is generally in rondo form, sometimes in variations, lively and cheerful in tone; its predominant 2-4 time preserves its original character of a dance; or sometimes it is in 6-8 time, after the fashion of a hunting song, as in the rondo of the Concerto in B flat major (450 K.) which closes in a long crescendo with a regular hunting flourish of trumpets. ”

“ III. Allegro con fuoco. “The third movement is a Toccata. This is a precipitate, displayful movement of much technical brilliance and requiring a large virtuosity—as difficult for orchestra as for the soloist. It is a Toccata for orchestra as much as for piano.
IV. Larghetto. “The fourth movement is the lyrical movement of the Concerto. It starts off with a soft, soothing theme: grows more and more intense in the middle portion, develops breadth and tension, then returns to the music of the beginning. German commentators have mistakenly called it a theme and variations. ”

“ The highest popular conception of a classical concert is one in which a complete orchestra performs symphonies and extended compositions in allied [Pg 123] forms, such as overtures, symphonic poems, and concertos. Change the composition of the instrumental body, by omitting the strings and augmenting the reed and brass choirs, and you have a military band which is best employed in the open air, and whose programmes are generally made up of compositions in the simpler and more easily comprehended forms—dances, marches, fantasias on popular airs, arrangements of operatic excerpts and the like. ”

“ The programme of a miscellaneous concert is not less important than the execution of it. For fifty-nine seasons the programme of the Philharmonic Society included 2 symphonies and 2 overtures, besides a concerto, and often another piece of full sonata-form, with several vocal pieces and smaller instrumental compositions. In 1872, however, after the removal of the concerts to St. ”

“ And we know how even in the best men of this period the great creative organism, in which every part conditions its own subordinate part, gives place to a mere isolation and to total want of system. In the concertos, after the traditional mutual compliments of orchestra and piano, the solo instrument starts, with surprising suddenness, on its passages, which are strung together from étude-pieces, selected haphazard. ”

“ Your trios, my dear friend, have been finished for a long time, and, true to my character of a glutton, I have gulped down your manuscripts into my repertoire. Your concerto will be performed this month by Adam's pupils at the examination of the Conservatoire. Mdlle. Lyon plays it very well. La Tentation, an opera-ballet by Halevy and Gide, has not tempted any one of good taste, because it has just as little interest as your German Diet harmony with the spirit of the age. ”

“ The title this time is in English throughout, and runs: ‘Concertos, or the Universal Bizzaries in seven parts, for four violins, tenor violin, and violoncello, with a thorough-bass for a harpsichord.’ The peculiarity of the concertos is that to each one is prefixed the name of an Italian city or a country of Europe, implying that each is written in the characteristic style of the place after which it is named. ”

“ So the Beethoven Concerto was taken out, and the Vieuxtemps Concerto put in its stead. The Chaconne was taken out, and the Faust Phantasie put in its stead. The manager said, "That's right," and went out to play golf. ”

“ After the small choruses, the songs, the string quartet, op. 2, and the symphony in D minor, there appeared some interesting experiments in various fields of composition. The list includes a pianoforte sonata, op. 5; a sonata for violoncello and pianoforte, op. 6; the serenade, op. 7, for wind-instruments, patronized by von Bülow; a violin concerto, op. 8; "Stimmungsbilder" for pianoforte, op. 9; the French-horn concerto, op. 11, already referred to; a symphony in F minor, op.-109- 12; a pianoforte quartet, op. 13; and "Wanderers Sturmlied," for six-part mixed chorus and orchestra, op. 14. ”

“ The programme had been previously cast by A. Pott, the resident director, his former pupil and enthusiastic admirer, and consisted wholly of Spohr’s compositions, viz. [Pg 263] concert overture in the serious style; latest violin concerts in E minor, executed by the composer; duett from “Jessonda” sung by Mrs. Schmidt of Bremen and Mr. **; clarinet concerto, played by Mr. Köhn, member of the ducal orchestra; grand symphony in C minor (No. 5) ; the “Lord’s Prayer,” for solo, chorus, and orchestra. ”