# Violin Concerto (Britten)

Benjamin Britten's Violin Concerto, Op. 15, was written from 1938 to 1939 and dedicated to Henry Boys, his former teacher at the Royal College of Music. Britten worked on it while staying with Aaron Copland and completed it in Quebec. It was premiered in New York on 29 March 1940 by the Spanish violinist Antonio Brosa with the New York Philharmonic conducted by John Barbirolli. A year after its first performance in New York, the concerto was performed for the first time in England at Queen's Hall on 6 April 1941. It was conducted by Basil Cameron, and the soloist was Thomas Matthews, leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It received its first broadcast performance with the BBC Orchestra, conducted by Clarence Raybould and Thomas Matthews as soloist, on 28 April 1941.

## Revisions

Britten revised the concerto in 1950, 1954, and 1965.
The first revision, including alterations of the solo violin part prepared with the assistance of Manoug Parikian, was performed by Bronislav Gimpel and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Thomas Beecham in 1951.
Britten wrote to Albert Goldberg in October 1950, saying:
   It was written in 1939, & although it has been played quite a lot here & abroad I have never been happy about the form of it... The fact that Heifetz was going to play the work spurred me on to looking [at] it again from this point of view, & that I have just done. There is no structural change in the work – a shortening here & a rewriting there is all I've done. There is no new material at all, although a complete rewriting of a violin passage in the last movement is a new development of existing stuff. The cadenza is shortened, & a rather embarrassing chord for orchestra in the middle of it is removed. I hope what I have done is to leave the work as it would have been had I been able to write it in 1939 with my present experience. I think I bit off then a bit more than I could chew! – especially in the last movement.

## Instrumentation

The concerto is scored for solo violin and an orchestra of three flutes (second and third flutes doubling piccolo), two oboes (second oboe doubling cor anglais), two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (glockenspiel, cymbals, triangle, bass drum, side drum, tenor drum), harp and strings.

## Structure

The concerto is written in three movements:
* Moderato con moto – Agitato – Tempo primo
* Vivace – Animando – Largamente – Cadenza
* Passacaglia: Andante lento (Un poco meno mosso)
This form, although in three movements, is highly unlike that of concertos from the Classical and Romantic eras. First used in the First Violin Concerto of Sergei Prokofiev, this design is also evident in the concertos of William Walton and later in Shostakovich's first violin concerto, that has a structure that clearly recalls Britten's concerto.
A typical performance lasts around 33 minutes.

## Analysis

The work opens with a series of timpani strokes, a reminder perhaps of Beethoven's 1806 Violin Concerto. The rhythm is taken up by the bassoon and other instruments, persisting as an ostinato throughout the entire work. The violin enters with a song-like lament, soaring above the orchestra. The music is soon interrupted by a more militaristic and percussive secondary theme.
The ensuing second movement, cast as a wild, moto perpetuo scherzo, unmistakably recalls Prokofiev. The movement culminates in an impressive cadenza which, while recalling musical material from both the first and second movements, acts as an organic link straight into the finale.
As the finale, Britten uses a passacaglia: a set of variations on a ground bass, in the tradition of the Baroque chaconnes by Purcell and Bach. The ground bass, tonally unstable, is initially introduced by the trombone, as the violin recalls its lyrical theme from the first movement. Individual variations unfold, taking up characters of song, dance, capriccio and march. By the end, the ground bass is reduced to chant-like reminiscences; the orchestra leaves hints of an unmistakable D major chord, while the soloist is left undecided in a trill between the notes F-natural and G-flat.

## Discography

| Year | Soloist | Conductor Orchestra | Format: Record label Catalogue number |
| 1948 | Theo Olof [nl; fr] | John Barbirolli, Hallé Orchestra (World Premiere Recording 1948, Original Version) | CD: EMI (7243 5 66053 2 9) Publication date: 1997 |
| 1952 | Antonio Brosa | Ian Whyte, BBC Scottish Orchestra (9 April 1952) | LP: Stereo Records & Tapes Cat: SRT/Custom 009 (private release) |
| 1964 | Nora Grumlíková [cs] | Peter Maag, Prague Symphony Orchestra (1964) | CD: Supraphon Cat: 1106532 (1991) |
| 1970s | Ruggiero Ricci | G.Brott, SWF Sinfonie Orchester (live – doubtful venue, conductor and orchestra) | CD: One-Eleven Cat: EPR-96020 (1996) |
| 1970 | Mark Lubotsky | Benjamin Britten, English Chamber Orchestra | CD: Decca Cat: 417 308-2 |
| 1974 | Rodney Friend | John Pritchard, London Philharmonic Orchestra | LP: EMI Cat: CFP 40250 |
| 1977 | Ida Haendel | Paavo Berglund, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra | LP: EMI Cat: ASD 3483 |
| 1981 | Boris Gutnikov | Aleksandr Dmitriyev, Leningrad Academic Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra | LP: Melodiya Cat: С10-16521-2 |
| 1990 | Lorraine McAslan | Steuart Bedford, English Chamber Orchestra (Recorded Oct. 1989) | CD: Collins Classics Cat: B0000264EZ |
| 1996 | Serguei Azizian | Osmo Vänskä, Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra | CD: Alto Cat: BAX3661 (2013) |
| 1997 | Rebecca Hirsch | Takuo Yuasa, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra | CD: Naxos Cat: 8.553882 |
| 2001 | Lydia Mordkovitch | Richard Hickox, BBC Symphony Orchestra | CD: Chandos Cat: CHAN 9910 |
| 2003 | Maxim Vengerov | Mstislav Rostropovich, London Symphony Orchestra | CD: EMI Classics Cat: 0724355751027 |
| 2004 | Frank Peter Zimmermann | Manfred Honeck, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra | CD: Sony Cat: S70316C 88697439992 |
| 2005 | Daniel Hope | Paul Watkins, BBC Symphony Orchestra | CD: Warner Classics Cat: 2564-60291-2 |
| 2009 | Janine Jansen | Paavo Järvi, London Symphony Orchestra | CD: Decca Cat: 000289 478 1530 3 |
| 2011 | Wanda Wiłkomirska | Witold Rowicki, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra | CD: Orchestral Concert CDs Cat: CD12/2011 |
| 2012 | Anthony Marwood | Ilan Volkov, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra | CD: Hyperion Cat: CDA67801 |
| 2013 | James Ehnes | Kirill Karabits, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra | CD: Onyx Cat: BBX2835 (2012) |
| 2013 | Tasmin Little | Edward Gardner, BBC Philharmonic | CD: Chandos Cat: CHAN10764 |
| 2014 | Gil Shaham | Juanjo Mena, Boston Symphony Orchestra | CD: Canary Classics Cat: CC12 |
| 2014 | Linus Roth | Mihkel Kütson, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin | CD/SACD: Challenge Classics Cat: CC 72627 |
| 2016 | Vilde Frang | James Gaffigan, hr-Sinfonieorchester | CD: Warner Classics Cat: 0825646009213 |
| 2017 | Arabella Steinbacher | Vladimir Jurowski, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra | CD/SACD: Pentatone Cat: PTC 5186625 |
| 2022 | Augustin Hadelich | Cristian Măcelaru, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne | CD: Warner Classics Cat: 9029631076 |
| 2023 | Kerson Leong | Patrick Hahn, Philharmonia Orchestra | CD: Alpha Classics Cat: ALPHA946 |
| 2024 | Baiba Skride | Marin Alsop, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra | CD: Orfeo Cat: C220021 |
| 2024 | Isabelle Faust | Jakub Hrůša, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks | CD: harmonia mundi Cat: HMM 902668 |