Elgar. Sibelius

The Cello Concerto was Edward Elgar’s last major work. Its premiere took place on 27 October 1919 in London under the baton of the composer, the solo being performed by Felix Salmond. In an analogy with a famous work by Benjamin Britten, the concerto is frequently referred to as Elgar’s “war requiem.” It stands apart from compositions from previous years for its severity of tone and unchanging seriousness.
It is as if the composer were returning to the musical style of the time of his youth – to the traditions of Tchaikovsky, Dvořák and Grieg. Elgar began work with the cello recitative that opens the concerto. This recitative subsequently returns as the composer’s voice several times. The main theme of the first movement, given to unaccompanied violas, is a symbol of emptiness and loneliness. The second movement (scherzo) brings to mind Anton Rubinstein’s words about the finale of Chopin’s Second Sonata: “night winds sweeping over churchyard graves.” The brief third movement is as if a beautiful recollection of happiness that is over too quickly and too unexpectedly. There are widely differing interpretations of the finale, even optimistic ones, but the piercing slow section, followed by a return of the recitative from the first movement, disperses any such illusions.
Anna Bulychova

The violin was Jean Sibelius’ favourite instrument, and in his youth the composer dreamt constantly of a glittering career as a virtuoso violinist. Sadly these dreams were not to be: he had begun to learn the instrument too late, and Sibelius had also had an injury to his shoulder which ultimately forced him to abandon his ambitious plans. Nevertheless, the composer never lost interest in the violin and could spend ages improvising on it. Approaching his fortieth birthday, he remarked “there is still a part of me that wishes to be a violinist, and this part of  me manifests itself in an unusual way.” Sibelius soon started working on his only violin concerto, in which he displays his deep love for and intimate knowledge of the instrument.
The concerto is remarkable for its extreme complexity: it reflects clearly the composer’s desire to showcase the violin’s unparalleled expressive possibilities – the ones that were beyond his own reach as a performer. The premiere of the work in Berlin was an astounding success, and his music led one of the critics to a make a charming comparison with “the picturesque Scandinavian winter landscapes where artists use the refined play of white on white to achieve rate and at times hypnotic and powerful effects.”
Nadezhda Kulygina