the forgotten violin concertos – part 3: standard repertoire

March 31, 2016, 8:02 AM · On my website www.tobias-broeker.de I am offering a „Violin Gathering Point“ about the compositions for violin concertante of the 20th century. The aim of this violin center is to promote the uncommon repertoire.

To support uncommon repertoire one has to find out the „common repertoire“. So what are the best-known compositions for violin concertante of the 20th century? Some years ago I posted a poll about this question on different classical music forums and from that time on checked with similar lists or questions that come up on such forums from time to time.

Here is the aggregation of all these lists:

There is a bunch of violin concertos that is always mentioned, so this seems to be the „standard 20th century violin concerto repertoire“ (in alphabetical order):

Samuel Barber
Bela Bartok No.2
Alban Berg
Benjamin Britten
Ernest Chausson „Poeme“
Edward Elgar
Aram Khachaturian
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Sergei Prokofiev 1+2
Maurice Ravel „Tzigane“
Dmitri Shostakovich 1+2
Jean Sibelius
Igor Stravinsky
Karol Szymanowski 2
William Walton

Additionally the following works received a handful to single mentions, so this could be called the „extended circle of standard repertoire“:

John Adams 1
Bela Bartok 1
Ernest Bloch
Havergal Brian
Gang Chen & Zhanghai He „Butterfly lovers VC“
John Corigliano VC
Ernst von Dohnanyi 1+2
Henri Dutilleux
Philip Glass
Alexander Glazunov
Sofia Gubaidulina 1
Karl Amadeus Hartmann
Hans Werner Henze 1
Paul Hindemith VC + Kammermusik No.4
Vagn Holmboe VC
Leos Janacek
Dmitri Kabalevsky
György Ligeti
Witold Lutoslawski „Chain 2“
Bohuslav Martinu 1+2
Gian Carlo Menotti
Nikolai Miaskovsky
Carl Nielsen
Krzysztof Penderecki 1
Max Reger
Wolfgang Rihm „Gesungene Zeit“
George Rochberg
Miklos Rozsa
Alfred Schnittke 1-4
Arnold Schönberg
William Schuman
Karol Szymanowski 1
Toru Takemitsu „Far calls. Coming, far!“
PeterisVasks
Ralph Vaughan Williams „The lark ascending“
Kurt Weill

Lists always have the effect on readers to question or disagree. If you feel protest surging up, please have the following in mind: I asked classical music listeners about the violin concertos which are best-known. So the ranking above does NOT mean that the mentioned violin concertos are „the best“ or „the most important“. It just says: If you take part in the actual classical music life (CDs, radio, concerts) you most likely come across these pieces sooner or later, if you like them or not.

So I can leave these works alone, there is enough support for them. The pressing question is: Which other interesting violin concertos exist?

more to follow...

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the forgotten violin concertos – part 3: standard repertoire

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