Felix Mendelssohn, the composer, began conceiving his Violin Concerto in E minor in 1838, intending it for his friend Ferdinand David, the leader of the Gewandhaus Orchestra.
Performer Biography
Sebastian Bohren, the Swiss violinist on this album, performs about ninety concerts each year as a soloist and chamber musician and is a member of the Stradivari Quartet.
Compositional Technique
Britten's Violin Concerto, like Beethoven's, begins with solo timpani taps, and similar to Mendelssohn's, links its movements and includes a written-out cadenza.
Composition History
Benjamin Britten, the composer, dedicated his Violin Concerto to his friend Henry Boys, with whom he had discussed and played music by composers like Mahler and Berg.
Compositional Technique
Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto links its three movements together to be played without a break, and the composer provided a written cadenza for the first movement.
Instruments
Sebastian Bohren plays an instrument by G.B. Guadagnini from Parma, dated 1776, which is part of a Swiss private collection.
Composition History
Tchaikovsky's Sérénade mélancolique was promised to Leopold Auer, a Hungarian violinist and professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire, but was premiered by Adolf Brodsky.
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