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Violin Concerto In those days, Beethoven was merry, jocular, cheerful, full of the joys of life, amusing, and not infrequently satirical. He had not yet been afflicted by any physical ailment, nor had the loss of that sense so utterly indispensable to the musician yet darkened his days.
This is how Ignaz von Seyfried remembers the composer in his memoirs of the year 1806 – perhaps Beethoven’s most prolific year of all, given that the Fourth Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto and Fourth Symphony were written in succession during this twelve-month period. Beethoven composed the Violin Concerto in D major Op.61 – his only one, unless we include a fragmentary work in C major dating from his Bonn period – for the violinist Franz Clement, a talented musician who played in the first violins of the Theater an der Wien orchestra and was equally popular with Viennese audiences. If we are to believe a newspaper report dating from 1805, his musicianship was characterised by an ‘indescribable delicacy, precision and purity’ of tone. One could almost believe that this description, together with Seyfried’s splendid characterisation of Beethoven, also referred to the concerto, which is undoubtedly his most cheerful work and abounds with light-hearted melodies – only at the first performance of the piece, on 23 December 1806, nobody seems to have noticed this! Perhaps the highly unusual circumstances had something to do with it: Beethoven had completed the piece only two days earlier, so Franz Clement practically had to sightread the solo part. A contemporary reviewer praised his playing, but Beethoven’s work was considered excessively lengthy, encumbered by tedious repetitions: ‘We fear that, if Beethoven continues along this path, both he and his audience will fare ill.’ Indeed, it took some time before Beethoven’s Violin Concerto established itself – primarily thanks to the violinist Joseph Joachim, who performed the work in a number of European cities around the middle of the 19th century. Since then, it has been considered the epitome of the classical violin concerto, as popular with audiences as
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with the great violinists. Christian Tetzlaff is one such musician to enjoy a special relationship with the work, and it strikes him that the melodic idiom of the piece is reminiscent of spoken language; Accordingly, the two cantabile sections in the first movement must be clearly structured and phrased to correspond with the harmonies. This aspect in particular has been somewhat neglected in the way the work has been performed in recent decades. Performers went to great lengths to broaden these melodies; it reached a point where the individual parts no longer corresponded with each other.
Considering this expansive pathos accordingly out of the place, he continues: On the contrary, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto is a very cheerful, sometimes almost naive work. That doesn’t mean to say that the piece doesn’t have its dark, lugubrious moments, but the basic mood is naively light-hearted.
Surprisingly, the work is introduced by four single drumbeats, and the timpani thereafter continue to play a dominant role; This creates a striking duality. On the one hand, there are the beautifully naive melodies, that should – if you please – also be played that way; and on the other hand, there is the unrelenting drum motif, which, with its military associations, represents the absolute opposite. Throughout the first movement, at least, this conflict between two opposing emotional worlds is a recurrent theme. Moreover, the drums make it quite clear that we are playing a piece in 4/4 time. By contrast, the lines of the melody are written in minims, and that is how you would like to play it; but time and again, the drumbeat forces you to revert to 4/4 time.
As is generally known, Beethoven later transcribed the Violin Concerto as a piano concerto, for which he wrote some additional solo cadenzas. For his own particular
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reasons, Tetzlaff has in turn transcribed these original piano cadenzas for the violin: ‘In my opinion, the solo cadences by Fritz Kreisler that are usually performed are alien – in purely harmonic terms, but also in terms of the concept and the idea behind them.’ According to Tetzlaff, Beethoven pursues an entirely different approach in his original piano cadenzas: ‘He has the solo kettledrum play with the piano, but much faster than in the basic tempo. That intensifies the military associations very considerably, and is also a central aspect of the whole of the first movement.’
Romances for violin and orchestra To this day, it has not been ascertained precisely when and for what occasion Beethoven composed the two Romances. Romance No.1 in G major Op.40 was published in 1803; No.2 in F major Op.50 two years later. Contrary to this numbering, the F major Romance was written before the G major one. Whether they were conceived as individual concertante pieces or as the slow movements of planned, but never completed, violin concertos must remain a subject of conjecture. However, a connection with the early C major Concerto written during Beethoven’s time in Bonn can definitely be discounted. Beethoven announced the two pieces to his publisher Johann André as ‘two adagios for violin with full instrumental accompaniment’. In view of their length and substantial musical content, the two Romances, which are particularly popular with audiences, are more likely to have been conceived as selfcontained, individual movements. The unconventional opening of the G major Romance is particularly surprising: the solo violin launches into the theme, written in double stops, without any orchestral accompaniment; only later does the orchestra make its entry. The rest of the piece is also characterised by a tense inner dialogue, while the noble melodies and uncomplicated levity of the F major Romance are more reminiscent of the virtuoso pieces typical of the period. 훿 Werner Pfister 4
Christian Tetzlaff ‘…I think what ultimately moves people is the emotional openness and deep sincerity of Tetzlaff’s playing.’ Jeremy Eichler, Boston Globe
For over 20 years Christian Tetzlaff has enjoyed a prolific concert schedule – in London alone he gave 10 concerts during the 2012/13 season: at the Proms; with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä; with the London Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Harding; and a residency at the Wigmore Hall. Tetzlaff is currently Artist-in-Residence with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, a tenure that began in August 2012 with a performane of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto under David Zinman. Further concerts as part of this residency have featured appearances with Christoph von Dohnanyi and Leif Ove Andsnes, among others. Tetzlaff continues to make return visits to orchestras such as the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Daniel Harding), Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (Yannick Nézet-Séguin), Berlin Philharmonic (Andris Nelsons), Gewandhausorchester Leipzig (Manfred Honeck), New York Philharmonic (Nelsons), Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (Michael Francis), Montreal Symphony Orchestra (Kent Nagano) and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (John Storgårds). In recital he has frequented several major cities with Leif Ove Andsnes, and in the spring of 2013 he embarked on an extensive tour with his string quartet, with concerts in Oslo, Cologne, London, Zurich, Freiburg, Berlin and Paris.
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Tetzlaff’s discography includes, among others, the major concerto repertoire, the Bartok Sonatas with Leif Ove Andsnes, and the three Brahms Violin Sonatas as well as Mozart Sonatas and Schumann Sonatas (all with Lars Vogt). He has received several awards for his recordings: the Diapason d’Or twice, the Edison prize, the Midem Classical Award, the ECHO Klassik prize and several Grammy nominations. Tetzlaff plays a violin by German maker Peter Greiner and teaches regularly at the Kronberg Academy near Frankfurt. Together with Lars Vogt he supports the initiative ‘Rhapsody in School – Musiker zum Anfassen’.
Recording: 30 & 31 May 2005, Tonhalle Zürich, Switzerland Producer: Chris Hazell Sound engineer & editing: Simon Eadon Assistant engineer: Will Brown 훿 2014 Brilliant Classics Released under license from Sony Music Entertainment Netherlands B.V.
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Beethoven on Brilliant Classics
Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 5 ‘Emperor’ 94602
Complete Cello Sonatas & Variations 94624 2CD
Complete Symphonies 94289 5CD
Complete String Quartets 94672 7CD
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