Diane Huh Photo: Gisborne International Music Competition
Sibelius only wrote this one Violin Concerto. He would have loved to première it himself – if only his performance technique had kept up with his compositional genius.
The initial encouragement for Sibelius to write this concerto came from his friend Wili Burmester. But a scheduling problem prevented him from taking part in the première, so another violinist was called in to play the solo part – but without enough preparation. The première was a fiasco. So the composer prepared a new, tighter version that trimmed away some of the excessively showy solo writing of the original. Richard Strauss conducted the première of the revised version.
Despite the early enthusiasm of a few violinists for this revised concerto, it was slow to catch on with audiences – and it wasn’t until Jascha Heifetz took up the work and recorded it in the 1930s, that it became the popular addition to the repertoire that it is today.
Recorded 23 March 2019, Aurora Centre, Christchurch by RNZ Concert
Sound Engineer: Graham Kennedy
