Revision or censorship? On Dvořák’s Violin Concerto

 

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Abstract

 

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Dvořák Violin Concerto heading contains a laudatory dedication to Joseph Joachim. Nevertheless, the great violinist wasn’t the first performer of the piece and not even present at the premiere in Prague; surprisingly he never played it in a public performance. Despite this, the definitive version of the piece has an antecedent one, harshly criticized by Joachim: he narrowly examined the first draft of the Concerto, suggesting several changes to the solo part and many others for the instrumentation and balance between soloist and orchestra. The composer, humbly deferential to the maestro, didn’t miss to review from top to bottom his work. Discussing Guy Erismann’s position on this argument, the paper intends to examine the last draft in order to define which were Joachim’s exigencies as a performer and which direction he hoped for a late-romantic violin concerto. This study will allow to advance hypothesis on Joachim’s rejection to perform the Concerto in his final version, notwithstanding his esteem towards the Czech composer and his music, proceeding from what the violinist considered clearly its critical issues. The study envisages to compare the piece with other important concertos dedicated to Joachim (basically Brahms’ and Bruch’s Violin Concerto) and Joachim’s one, based on structural, formal and expressive criteria.

 

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Biography

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Born in Catania (Italy) in 1996, Daniele studied Principal Piano at “Vincenzo Bellini” Musical Institute in Catania, where he obtained his BA and Master’s Degree. He attended masterclasses with, among others, Bruno Canino, Leonid Margarius, Francesco Manara, Sergey Girshenko, Enrico Pace. He’s currently pursuing a Master in Violin in the same institution, where he received his BA in 2019, at the same time attending Humanities courses at the University of Catania. He has recently started to study orchestral conducting at the “Italian Conducting Academy” in Milan.