Violin Concerto in A Minor

Glazunov’s Violin Concerto was composed in 1904 for the great Hungarian virtuoso and pedagogue Leopold Auer, who gave the first performance the following year in St. Petersburg. Cast in an opulent late-Romantic style with sumptuous melodies and rich harmonies, it quickly established a secure place in the violin repertoire and remains one of the composer’s most popular works. The Concerto is conceived as a continuous piece of music which can be broken down into four distinct sections. After a lyrical “Moderato,” Glazunov unexpectedly introduces a concise yet song-like and heartwarming “Andante” section before returning to the earlier tempo and further developing material heard in the opening. The soloist then plays, unaccompanied, an extended and technically demanding cadenza, which leads directly into the final exhilarating “Allegro,” introduced by a joyful fanfare-like theme on the trumpets. Here the violinist faces even more daunting challenges, having to master stratospherically high harmonics and, in one brief passage, imitate the sound of a Russian balalaika.