Benjamin Britten, the composer, was only twenty-five years old when he completed his Violin Concerto and remained in the USA for nearly two years after the war began in Europe.
Composition History
The Two Pieces for violin, viola, and piano, completed shortly after Britten's sixteenth birthday in 1929, were only published in 2013 after being archived for decades.
Composition History
The Violin Concerto was written for Antonio Brosa, a distinguished Spanish-born violinist who had settled in London.
Critical Reception
American composer Elliott Carter, reviewing the 1940 premiere of Britten's Violin Concerto, sensed a pronounced autobiographical dimension in the music.
Composition History
Britten began composing his Violin Concerto in late 1938, just months before leaving Europe for North America, and completed its orchestration in September 1939 after the war in Europe had started.
Composition History
A likely inspiration for Britten's Violin Concerto was Alban Berg's Concerto, which Britten greatly admired after hearing its premiere two years earlier.
Compositional Technique
Britten's Violin Concerto signals a shift towards more direct and emotional forms of expression, moving away from the stylistic parody often found in his earlier works from the 1930s.
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