Composer Jean Sibelius was trained as a violinist, although he never became a virtuoso performer. He auditioned, unsuccessfully, for a place in the Vienna Philharmonic when he was 26, and it was difficult for him to overcome this disappointment when he was not accepted.
As such, it is pretty easy to imagine all sorts of personal issues that sublimated in Sibelius’ Violin Concerto. Certainly inner feelings were at play when he wrote it.
One of Sibelius’ strongest supporters at the time was the violinist Willy Burmester, who was eager to play the new concerto on which Sibelius was working. The composer readily promised the premiere to Burmester. He then made a sudden, unexplained, and seemingly self-destructive change, entrusting the 1904 Helsinki premiere instead to one Viktor Nováček, and he basically failed.
After the tensions and dark energy of the first movement, the slow movement comes as a moment of timelessness in an otherwise very time-conscious piece.
In the finale there is again an unrelenting forward motion. It is obsessive and driven, yes, but also brilliant and exciting, orchestra and soloist seeming to compete with each other for control of this amazing emotional music.
Here is violinist Joshua Bell to play this concerto for you:
