Violin Concerto

Carl Nielsen was himself a violinist, although never rising beyond the status of a rank-and-file orchestral player; so it’s perhaps significant that when, in midlife, he came to write a violin concerto, it was an aspirational piece of extreme technical difficulties designed to challenge any soloist. Dating from 1911, it in fact hides its challenges behind a facade of genial, often restrained neo-classicism that looks back to the order and balance of past composers like Mozart, using what was, for the early 20th century, a modest orchestra. But the musical language is Nielsen’s own, with the fresh, open lyricism and repeating-note melodies that are his fingerprints. And the Concerto’s half-hour duration comes in the not-so-classical format of just two movements, both of them fast but preceded by slow introductions. The opening movement has a truly Mozartian simplicity that becomes more complex, and gives the soloist a chance to dazzle, technically, in a cadenza midway through the lively “Allegro cavalleresco” section. Movement two is a rustic “Rondo” that also gears up in complexity, with a cadenza for the soloist of virtuoso brilliance.