요하네스 브람스(1833~1897)
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77
요약 3대 바이올린 협주곡 중 하나로 꼽히는 이 곡은 브람스와 친분이 있던 바이올리니스트 요제프 요아힘에게 헌정된 곡이다.
목차
- 바이올린 협주곡 D장조 - 우정의 나무에 열린 잘 익은 열매
- 요아힘과의 교류가 맺은 결실
- 다양한 바이올린협주곡에 자극을 받다
- 요아힘도 부담스러워한 비르투오시티
- 바이올린을 거스르는 협주곡
- 고전적이면서도 브람스적인
The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77, was composed by Johannes Brahms in 1878(45세) and dedicated to his friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim. It is Brahms's only violin concerto,
and, according to Joachim, one of the four great German violin concerti:
The Germans have four violin concertos. The greatest, most uncompromising is Beethoven's.
The one by Brahms vies with it in seriousness. The richest, the most seductive, was written
by Max Bruch. But the most inward, the heart's jewel, is Mendelssohn's.
Instrumentation
It is scored for solo violin and an orchestra consisting of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons; 4 horns in D, F, and E, 2 trumpets in D, timpani, and strings.
Structure
It follows the standard concerto form, with three movements in the pattern quick-slow-quick:
- Allegro non troppo (D major)부드러운 세 박자, 그리고 첫 주제의 3화음 등이 인상적이며, 두 개의 주제적 동기가 지닌 리듬의 특성은 매우 흥미롭다. 다섯 개의 4분음표 음형이 반복되면서 조성된 부드럽고 서정적인 동기는 제1바이올린에 의해 펼쳐지며, 다섯 박자 음형의 동일 반복은 기초가 되는 세 박자의 갈등 구조는 묘한 긴장감을 불러일으킨다. 으뜸음과 딸림음에서 지속되는 페달 포인트 위로 독주자는 46마디의 ‘기교적인 어려움’을 풀어야 한다.
- Adagio (F major)매력적인 오보에의 활약이 돋보이는 이 악장은 고독하고 쓸쓸한 정경을 제시한다. 유달리 아름다운 아다지오 악장에 대해 브람스 자신은 그다지 만족하지 않은 것 같다. 독주 바이올린과 오케스트라의 섬세한 대위법을 감상할 수 있다.
- Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace – Poco più presto (D major)여섯 부분으로 된 론도는 독주 악기가 주제를 더블스톱으로 연주함으로써 시작된다. 헝가리의 집시 스타일의 이 악장은 첼로의 셋잇단음표로 시작되는 코다가 파도처럼 긴장감을 높여나간다. 다만 브람스가 지시했듯이 ‘마 논 트로포 비바체’(그러나 너무 활기차지는 않게)를 염두에 두어야 한다. 저음현의 피치카토에 이어 독주 바이올린은 8분음의 휴지부를 두면서 마무리된다.
Originally, the work was planned in four movements like the second piano concerto. The middle movements, one of which was intended to be a scherzo — a mark that Brahms intended a symphonic concerto rather than a virtuoso showpiece — were discarded and replaced with what Brahms called a "feeble Adagio." Some of the discarded material was reworked for the second piano concerto.
Brahms, who was impatient with the minutiae of slurs marking the bowing, rather than phrasing, as his usual practice was, asked Joachim's advice on the writing of the solo violin part. Joachim, who had first been alerted when Brahms informed him in August that "a few violin passages" would be coming in the mail, was eager that the concerto should be playable and idiomatic, and collaborated willingly, not that all his advice was heeded in the final score. The most familiar cadenza, which appears in the first movement, is by Joachim, though a number of people have provided alternatives, including Leopold Auer, Henri Marteau, Max Reger, Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, George Enescu, Nigel Kennedy and Rachel Barton Pine. A recording of the concerto released by Ruggiero Ricci has been coupled with Ricci's recordings of sixteen different cadenzas.
Premiere
The work was premiered in Leipzig on January 1, 1879, by Joachim, who insisted on opening the concert with the Beethoven Violin Concerto, written in the same key, and closing with the Brahms.
Joachim's decision could be understandable, though Brahms complained that "it was a lot of D major—and not much else on the program." Joachim was not presenting two established works, but one established one and a new, difficult one by a composer who had a reputation for being difficult.[6] The two works also share some striking similarities. For instance, Brahms has the violin enter with the timpani after the orchestral introduction: this is a clear homage to Beethoven, whose violin concerto also makes unusual use of the timpani.
Brahms conducted the premiere. Various modifications were made between then and the work's publication by Fritz Simrock later in the year.
Critical reaction to the work was mixed: the canard that the work was not so much for violin as "against the violin" is attributed equally to conductor Hans von Bülow and to Joseph Hellmesberger, to whom Brahms entrusted the Vienna premiere,[7] which was however rapturously received by the public.[8] Henryk Wieniawski called the work "unplayable", and the violin virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate refused to play it because he didn't want to "stand on the rostrum, violin in hand and listen to the oboe playing the only tune in the adagio."[7]
Against these critics, modern listeners often feel that Brahms was not really trying to produce a conventional vehicle for virtuoso display; he had higher musical aims. Similar criticisms have been voiced against the string concerti of other great composers, such as Beethoven's Violin Concerto and Hector Berlioz's Harold in Italy, for making the soloist "almost part of the orchestra."[9]
Technical demands
The technical demands on the soloist are formidable, with generous use of multiple stopping, broken chords, rapid scale passages, and rhythmic variation. The difficulty may to some extent be attributed to the composer's being chiefly a pianist.
Nevertheless, Brahms chose the violin-friendly key of D major for his concerto. Since the violin is tuned G'D'A'E, the open strings, resonating sympathetically, add brilliance to the sound. For the same reason, composers of many eras (e.g. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Prokofiev, Korngold and Khachaturian) have written violin concertos in either D major or D minor.
In popular culture
The third movement of the concerto is the inspiration for the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice song "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" from the musical Evita.
The third movement is used twice in Paul Thomas Anderson's 2007 film There Will Be Blood, including the end credits.
In Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg, Smilla, the protagonist says "I cry because in the universe there is something as beautiful as Kremer playing Brahm's violin concerto".
The violin entrance in the first movement is sampled extensively in Alicia Keys's 2004 song,