Review (PDF) Beethoven: Violin Concerto (Cambridge Music Handbooks)
This is the first individual study of Beethoven's Violin Concerto. It explores the work's background and the influences that combined in its creation, and describes its indifferent initial reception. It considers the numerous textual problems that confront the performer, including discussion of Beethoven's adaptation for piano and orchestra. Following a detailed synopsis of the work itself, a final section reviews the wide variety of cadenzas that have been written to complement the concerto throughout its performance history.
Series: Cambridge Music Handbooks
Paperback: 140 pages
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (February 28, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0521457750
ISBN-13: 978-0521457750
Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.3 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
Best Sellers Rank: #2,238,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #74 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Sheet Music & Scores > Forms & Genres > Violin Concertos #157 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Sheet Music & Scores > Forms & Genres > Concerto #431 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Sheet Music & Scores > Composers > Beethoven
Robin Stowell's book is an introduction to the musical workings of Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D Major op. 61 and the context of its creation and reception in general. Weighing in a concise 140 pages and mainly eschewing jargon (the reader needs only a basic understanding of music theory and, ideally, a cheap score for the piece), Stowell's book is friendly and accessible to a broad readership. I got this book while trying to come to grips with this concerto (in Gidon Kremer's first recording), not easy to do since my tastes run to modernism, and indeed the book greatly expanded my appreciation of Beethoven's work.Stowell opens with the Viennese classical music scene and Beethoven's career in the years before the writing of the Violin Concerto. He discusses in some depth the evolution of violin design and technique in the late Classical era, which is of great importance to why this work turned out the way it did. Stowell gives what details are known of Beethoven's acquaintance with the violinist Franz Clement, the dedicatee of the work.As in all Cambridge Music Handbooks, there is coverage of the work's reception and performance history. The course of approaches in the 19th century is a battlefield, and Stowell notes that Clement's own violin technique was almost immediately ridiculed for belonging to a past age. Stowell also looks at Beethoven's Op. 61a, a piano concerto arrangement, which is of some interest as it gives clues for some aspects of the violin concerto's score, and at least one set of cadenzas has been drawn from it.
Beethoven: Violin Concerto (Cambridge Music Handbooks) J.S. Bach - Violin Concerto in D Minor (from Concerto No. 1 For Harpsichord, Bwv1052): Music Minus One Violin (Music Minus One (Numbered)) The Heart of the Violin Concerto: Orchestral Theme from the Major Violin Concerti (Music Minus One Violin) Sibelius - Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47: Music Minus One Violin (Music Minus One (Numbered)) Brahms - Double Concerto for Violin & Violoncello in A Minor, Op. 102: Music Minus One Violin Deluxe 2-CD Set (Music Minus One (Numbered)) Brahms - Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77: Music Minus One Violin (Music Minus One (Numbered)) Viotti - Violin Concerto No. 22 in A Minor: Music Minus One Violin Deluxe 2-CD Set (Music Minus One (Numbered)) Vivaldi - Concerto in E Major, Op. 3, No. 12 & Concerto in C Major, Op. 6 "Piacere" RV 180: Music Minus One Violin (Music Minus One (Numbered)) Violin Concerto in A Minor, Op. 53: and Romance for Violin and Orchestra in F Minor, Op. 11 (Dover Music Scores) Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64: with Separate Violin Part (Dover Chamber Music Scores) Dvorák: Cello Concerto (Cambridge Music Handbooks) Mozart: Clarinet Concerto (Cambridge Music Handbooks) Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra (Cambridge Music Handbooks) J.S. Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 & Triple Concerto in A Minor: Music Minus One Violin Beethoven - String Quartets, Op. 18: No. 1 in F Major & No. 4 in C Minor: Music Minus One Violin (Music Minus One (Numbered)) Violin Concerto: Violin and Piano Reduction (William Walton Edition) VIOLIN CONCERTO VIOLIN AND PIANO REDUCTION Antonio Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in a Minor, Opus 3 No. 6: Edition for Violin and Piano EASY CONCERTO AND CONCERTINOSVIOLIN/PIANO CONCERTO IN G OP 34 (Easy Concertos and Concertinos for Violin and Piano) Easy Classical Violin & Viola Duets: Featuring music of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss and other composers.
