Wilhelm Petersen Violin concerto (MDR symphony orchestra, Linus Roth, Trinks)

[ewk]

Hi all,
Linus Roth under the baton of Constantin Trinks played the posthumous world premiere of Wilhelm Petersen's late romantic violin concerto last weekend in the Leipzig Gewandhaus. Quite an interesting piece. I could not quite get into the first movement, but the 2d and 3d movement are more easily digestible and quite beautiful in my opinion.
The entire concert performance can be heard here:
https://www.mdr.de/klassik/hoeren-sehen/leipzig-gewandhaus-konzert-mdr-sinfonieorchester-constantin-trinks-100.html

Petersen is probably best known for his 3d symphony due to the recording by Trinks and the Frankfurt (hr) radio symphony orchestra some years ago.

Best wishes
ewk

[Alan Howe]

Thanks very much indeed for this notification. From a quick check, the Violin Concerto starts at 12:45 and ends at 1:03:00, making the work around 50 minutes in length! Quite a piece, in other words. Perhaps (a kind) someone might be able to extract the work from the remainder of the concert programme and upload it to our stock of radio recordings?

[eschiss1]

This was actually announced as planned way back here but I'm glad to see it took place and hope a recording is in the works too. (BTW I think his symphony in C-sharp minor? (no.4? different one from the one on cpo) may be on YouTube and over the years LPs and CDs of his complete violin sonatas and string quartets have shown up. Has sounded like a composer worth getting to know, so far...

[tuatara442442]

I quite love his violin sonatas and particularly nos 1 (revised version in late years) & 3. These are more "agreeable" in style (like his symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 and the piano concerto) after he retreated in late years from a somewhat dissonant expressionist idiom. I also bought the cd contains the piano quartet and the lp contains the string quartets. They (piano quartet and string quartets nos 1 & 2) are works from his expressionist period.

[Justin]

I thought it was a pleasant work, and agree with ewk that the more appealing movements are the last two. The lyricism is a bit surprising for the 1940s, and the sunny slow movement actually reminded me a bit of Somervell at times.

[tuatara442442]

the opening notes are the same as his violin sonata no. 1

[Alan Howe]

This was actually announced as planned

Thanks, Eric. It had completely slipped my mind.

[Alan Howe]

I am listening to this very beautiful work as I type. I expected it to be more like Reger's VC, but it has what I can only describe as an 'inner glow' which is extremely attractive. If a commercial recording is eventually released, I'll be first in the queue...

[tuatara442442]

I have just uploaded a recording of this broadcast, waiting to be approved

[Alan Howe]

Thanks very much indeed. It's here:
https://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,9734.msg99490/boardseen.html#new

[Justin]

According to the "Jahresheft der Wilhelm-Petersen-Gesellschaft," the concerto was completed sometime between 1943 and 1945.

[Alan Howe]

Confirms the details accompanying the download - thanks.

[semloh]

I have just uploaded a recording of this broadcast, waiting to be approved

Thank you so much for uploading this. I wonder if it might be the precursor to a commercial recording.

[tuatara442442]

I remember in the previous post about the recording of this concerto, a coupling of Woyrsch's VC is mentioned. So I think this heralds a commercial release