Violin Concerto in D minor, WoO 23

This concerto sat in a Prussian library for over 80 years after Schumann wrote it, suppressed partly because the violinist Joseph Joachim, for whom it was written, quietly judged it unfit for performance. It was finally premiered in 1937 under politically charged circumstances in Nazi Germany, which coloured its early reception. The three-movement work opens with a weighty orchestral subject that sets a symphonic rather than showpiece tone: the violin enters after an orchestral introduction, and its role throughout the first movement is subordinated to a large-scale formal argument rather than display. The slow movement is an intensely melodic intermezzo in B-flat major that flows without a break into a dance-like finale in D major built on a strong polonaise rhythm.

What to listen for

The first movement has no cadenza at all, unusual for a concerto, because Schumann structured it along symphonic lines where the violin functions more as a voice within the orchestra than as a soloist showing off. In the slow movement, listen for the lyrical violin melody: the same melody later resurfaced when Schumann, in a delirious state in early 1854, reportedly believed it had been dictated to him by the spirits of Schubert and Mendelssohn, and he began writing piano variations on it. The transition from this slow movement into the finale is seamless, the music shifting without pause from introspective lyricism into the insistent dance pulse of the polonaise.

Recommended rendition

Thomas Zehetmair with Christoph Eschenbach and the Philharmonia Orchestra (1988) has been frequently cited for returning to Schumann's original manuscript and correcting errors in the published edition.

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