Violin Concerto in D Minor

Sibelius was in his mid-twenties in 1891 when he realised that he would never become a concert violinist. His Violin Concerto (1905)—one of the greatest of the genre—represents something of a poignant farewell to that dream. First completed in 1904, in its original form it was a formidable test of virtuosity, which the hapless violinist at its premiere failed dismally. Sibelius withdrew the work and tightened its construction to create the masterpiece we now know. It begins (“Allegro moderato”) with a shimmering texture played by the orchestral violins, against which the soloist plays a wistful, long-spun melody. The mood darkens before the soloist reaches the end of their paragraph, the orchestra finally having its own say. The soloist eventually re-enters in an apparently conciliatory mood, blossoming into a double-stopped passage as if in an impassioned self-duet. A moody orchestral passage then leads to a small break in the storm, which abates. Then follows the soloist’s impassioned cadenza, effectively a soliloquy. The orchestra rejoins for a moody recapitulation of the principal themes before the movement ends in a defiant mood. The slow movement, by contrast, is mostly tender and intimate, the soloist apparently determined to put on a brave smile despite a sense of underlying melancholy. Midway through the movement, the soloist briefly expresses candid grief, but the final mood is one of stoic acceptance and hope. The dance-like finale is perhaps reminiscent of Brahms’ Violin Concerto, gruffer and more dour in character, but nonetheless exhilarating.