Mendelssohn. Brahms. Liszt

The overture and scherzo from Mendelssohn’s music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream appear to have been worn from one burst of inspiration, but in actual fact one was written seventeen years after the other. In 1826 the seventeen-year-old composer had begun to read Shakespeare’s plays in translation by the German romantic poet Ludwig Tieck. As a result, on 6 August that year he completed his fantasy concerto overture, which immediately became his “calling card”. First it was performed at the Mendelssohns’ home, in 1827 it was performed in Szczecin and the next year on a bright sunny day it created a sensation in London, later followed by performances in Paris. Of the chords of the wind instruments that open the overture Franz Liszt said that they are like eyelids closing and opening so that the listener’s eyesight can penetrate the magical world of the elves. But not just of the elves: the imitation of an asinine “hee-haw” refers to the part of Shakespeare’s play when Nick Bottom is transformed into a beast. On 14 October 1843 in Potsdam the premiere of Ludwig Tieck’s production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream took place; by this time Tieck was Director of theatres in Berlin. It was logical that the Berlin conductor Felix Mendelssohn would compose another twelve musical numbers for it, including one of the orchestral entr’actes – the Scherzo.
Anna Bulycheva

Brahms’ only violin concerto was written in the summer of 1878 in Pörtschach, a small town in the south of Austria. The air of the town had a beneficial effect on Brahms, who worked on his Second Symphony in Pörtschach the previous summer, and he was now returning to images and the tonality of the symphony (in D Major) for his violin concerto.
The concerto is dedicated to Joseph Joachim, an outstanding violinist of Hungarian descent. It was Joachim who introduced Brahms to the Schumanns, who played an extremely important role in Brahms’ life, and they remained close friends for many years. While working on the concerto, Brahms asked Joachim numerous questions about violin technique, but he did not always follow his advice. But when writing the first section he did not compose a cadenza for it, instead using Joachim’s cadenza.
Brahms’ concerto is one of the most virtuoso works in the genre. Hans von Bülow, comparing Brahms’ concerto with Bruch’s popular violin concerto, stated that Bruch’s concerto was written “for the violin” while Brahms’ concerto was written “against the violin”. Moreover, the complicated nature of the violin part is connected rather with the structure of the work and the complexity of the idea than with a wish to display the technical abilities of the soloist.
As with the Second Symphony, the concerto is imbued with a typically Brahms-like atmosphere of airy and light triumph which is not darkened by the dramatic moods that invade from time to time. Leading the listener in the first and second sections through a series of lyrical images, in the finale Brahms becomes immersed in the spirit of a Hungarian folk dance. And not just because the concerto is dedicated to Joachim, but also because the very sound of the violin was, for Brahms, indissolubly linked with the expression and passion of Hungarian melodies.
Yekaterina Yusupova