Violin Concerto in A minor Op.82

Moderato    – andante sostenuto – moderato –

(Cadenza) –

Allegro – più animato

Once a staple of the repertoire, Glazunov’s Violin Concerto has fallen out of favour in recent years. And that’s a pity, partly because it is the one symphonic work (as distinct from ballet music) by which Glazunov is most likely to be represented in concerts outside Russia but above all because it offers such an engaging combination of tunefulness and technical brilliance. It is true that it in comparison with the Sibelius Violin Concerto, which was also written in 1904, or the Elgar, which was written six years later, it is not entirely innocent of what might be unkindly described as overused virtuoso effects – although that kind of thing has never been an obstacle to popularity. At the same time, while it might lack something of the emotional commitment common to both those works, it is put together in a quite distinctive way. Basically, it is constructed in two movements, Moderato and Allegro, which are played without a break. While there is no slow movement, there is a significant Andante sostenuto episode in the middle of the first movement, and between the Moderato and the Allegro there is a cadenza long enough almost to be a movement in itself – a feature which Elgar evidently did not forget when he was writing his Concerto in B minor.

The Moderato begins with throbbing A minor harmonies on woodwind against which the violin projects the expressive Russian-style main theme. Although the soloist joins the flute and clarinet in an animato variant of that theme, the trend at this point is to a slow down to tranquillo for the introduction of the lyrical second subject, which is tenderly presented by solo violin accompanied only by strings. After more fluctuations in tempo and displays of bravura agility from the soloist, the tempo slows down again, this time for the Andante sostenuto episode which is as near Glazunov gets to a slow movement here. Again the new melody – another variant of the main theme – is introduced by the violin, now in full G-string eloquence in a serene A flat major. The harp, which makes its first entry at this point, remains a prominent partner as the ever more passionate soloist elaborates the melodic line in double-stopped sixths at one climactic point and in high octaves at another.

A last D flat major chord on the harp, woodwind and pizzicato violin marks the end of the Andante sostenuto. It is followed by an immediate return of the Moderato tempo for a combined development and recapitulation of the material associated with it. Although the tempo twice changes to animato, in the first instance for a bright little scherzo episode, the trend is again to slow down – in this case to prepare the way for the cadenza. Far from indulging in an empty display of virtuosity in this long-sustained soliloquy, the soloist takes the opportunity to develop themes introduced earlier in the work. Not the least remarkable aspect, just after a series of multi-stopped pizzicato chords, is a treatment of the Andante sostenuto melody that sounds as though played by two violins rather than just one.

A brief fanfare on the trumpets accompanied by a drumroll signals the start of the closing Allegro – a signal eagerly seized by the soloist who converts it into a theme which is to supply, with apparently inexhaustiblle melodic resource, all the tunes heard in the rest of the movement. Not even the most daunting technical challenges – passages of harmonics with left-hand pizzicato, double-stopped tremolandos, guitar-like strumming – can sink the buoyant solo part as it passes through one acceleration and yet another to the exhilarating A major ending.