Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, op. 33

Carl Nielsen's Concerto for Violin, Op. 33 was composed in Norway when he was visiting Nina Grieg, Edvard Grieg's widow. In the summer of 1911 she invited him to Troldhaugen, the composing retreat of her late husband. Here Nielsen began his only violin concerto. He worked slowly, considering the concept of the solo instrumental concerto genre. According to him, the virtuosic display of the instrument should not be at the expense of the artistic content; the work should sound effective and accessible without being superficial. Compared to the flamboyant late romanticism of Sibelius's concerto, Nielsen opted for a neoclassical approach to the genre, which preceded the later neoclassical works created by Stravinsky and other composers. The work was premiered on February 28^th, 1912, the same evening his Third Symphony Expansiva was also performed on the programme. Nielsen himself conducted the orchestra and the soloist was his preferred virtuoso, Peder Møller. Captivating for its melodiousness, the concert was a great success. the critic Robert Henriques, in his review, described the evening as proof of the composer's "rare talent", who is "well on the way to the great goals he has set himself": “The Violin Concerto is a very significant work which will gain every time it is heard, because of course one only gradually becomes aware of all the brilliant details.". In the following years the Violin Concerto was performed several times not only in Denmark but also in Gothenburg and Stockholm, always with Møller as soloist. Instead of the usual three-part structure, Nielsen denoted two parts in the work. The first movement, Praeludium, begins dramatically, with strong chords framing the soloist's extended declamatory passages. A lyrical theme follows, running through various moods. After this opening section, clear accents introduce the second, more energetic section, Allegro cavalleresco; the soloist's part dominates its unfolding texture. The second movement, Adagio, begins with woodwind solos. Nielsen wrote to his wife from Troldhaugen about the pastoral character of the movement: 'In the evening the mountains around are clear with the blue sky as a background'. The last rondo, despite some difficult passages, avoids showy concert glitter. Obviously his wife had an influence in the construction of the concerto's vivid relief musical texture. Referring to a sculpture of her own, Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen points out, "What I wanted to show in my figure is the forward movement, the sense of life, the fact that nothing stands still." This exciting forward movement is wonderfully portrayed in Carl Nielsen's Violin Concerto.