Amanda Röntgen-Maier (1853-1894)

[Alan Howe]

A nice concerto, yes. But nowhere near the quality of the Dietrich VC in my view. The Dietrich, by contrast, is something close to a masterpiece.

[Martin Eastick]

I acknowledge that the general consensus of opinion here regarding Hyperion's Romantic Violin Concerto series is that the choice of repertoire (with a few notable exceptions) has seemed rather limited, with unadventurous duplications - but I for one would be more than happy to have duplicate performances of Julius Röntgen's two violin concertos if it meant we could have a first class recording of this rather splendid concerto by Amanda!

[Alan Howe]

Agreed, Martin. Although that would make three recordings of the A minor concerto by Julius...

[Mark Thomas]

I've added to our Downloads section here an mp3 made from the video of the performance. I must say that Röntgen-Maier's Concerto is a highly attractive and enjoyable piece, very persuasively played. Considering that Maier was only 22 years old and a comparatively inexperienced composer, the work is something of a triumph, but I do think that an objective comparison with another violin concerto recently "discovered" here, that by Eduard Lassen, does highlight that she had some way to go before equalling his achievement in that work.

[Alan Howe]

The concerto has the inestimable advantage of being played by a sensitive soloist and a top-class orchestra and conductor in the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Sakari Oramo. I've certainly enjoyed listening to it, but would put, say, the Lassen a long way ahead in terms of accomplishment - and especially originality. Still, it's a most interesting find and certainly worthy of a recording.

[jerfilm]

I'm surprised that the Philharmonic site does not give a key signature for this lovely work......

Jerry

[Mark Thomas]

No, I couldn't find a key signature or  tempo indication anywhere online.

[eschiss1]

Unless there's some distortion in the Konserthuset video, the work's opening minute or so is in D minor
(I don't have perfect pitch, but I did call up a piano-keyboard page and checked to see what pitch-center was being, well, tonicized.)
It's -possible- that the opening is a big misleading thing (e.g. opening of the finale of Beethoven quartet no. of course- I haven't really listened to the work just yet- but I'm guessing "D minor" is the answer here...

[eschiss1]

There is a description of the concerto ("in D minor, ...") here (first comment, by Mark Starr, the fellow who made the edition of the work.)

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, Eric. I'll add the key signature to the details in Mark's post in the Downloads board. Note too that the work's title (translated) is: "Violin Concerto in One Movement".

[JimL]

I noted that the concerto, according to the blog is in a single sonata-style movement, rather than the compressed 3 movements of, say, the Wieniawski 2nd.  Did anybody get the tempo of the movement?

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks, Eric and Alan.

[Alan Howe]

This is Mark Starr's description of the work:

The concerto, in D minor, is a dramatic, virtuoso work, about 17 minutes in duration. It is not in three contrasting sections compressed into one continuous movement -- as is, for example, Joseph Joachim's Violin Concerto No. 1. Rather, it is a large-scale movement in sonata-allegro form, with a rich symphonic role for the orchestra. There are intimations of Grieg, Mendelssohn and even Brahms. But Maier had a fiery voice of her own in this work. The high point, in my view, is the majestic violin cadenza -- which is free and intense.
http://musicalassumptions.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/more-photos-of-amanda-maier-and-her.html

[JimL]

I don't know where he got that information about Joachim's 1st VC, but it's just plain wrong.  The G minor concerto of Joachim is also a single sonata-form movement, with a cadenza and coda.  There are no separate movements whatsoever - not even a central slow episode interrupting the development.

[eschiss1]

Jim- not knowing what counts as a "beat" in the score, not sure I could guess well enough what the real tempo marking is.  The only available scores, as Mr. Starr points out (unless the manuscript's location is known and someone can get a photocopy of the first few pages from its owner, or something) are the recently-published scores (full, violin, and reduced- full released since he made that comment) available directly or via Amazon (directly or as reseller). And unless someone here has purchased one of those, questions like opening metronome mark etc. are probably going to remain mysteries for awhile, I fear (or of course, email Mr. Starr directly, that might be best of all...)

Re Joachim- odd since he could have chosen 288 other Romantic examples to make his point correctly, yes?...