The ''Symphonie espagnole'' in
D minor
D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative major is F major and its parallel major is D major.
The D natural minor scale is:
Changes needed ...
,
Op. 21, is a work for
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
and
orchestra
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families.
There are typically four main sections of instruments:
* bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...
by
Édouard Lalo
Édouard-Victoire-Antoine Lalo (27 January 182322 April 1892) was a French composer. His most celebrated piece is the '' Symphonie espagnole'', a five-movement concerto for violin and orchestra, which remains a popular work in the standard repe ...
.
History
The work was written in 1874 for violinist
Pablo Sarasate
Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués (; 10 March 1844 – 20 September 1908), commonly known as Pablo de Sarasate, was a Spanish (Navarrese) violin virtuoso, composer and conductor of the Romantic period. His best known works include ...
, and premiered in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
on February 7, 1875.
Although called a "Spanish
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning c ...
" (see also
Sinfonia concertante
Sinfonia concertante (; also called ''symphonie concertante'') is an orchestral work, normally in several movements, in which one or more solo instruments contrast with the full orchestra.Collins: ''Encyclopedia of Music'', William Collins Sons & C ...
), it is considered a
violin concerto by musicians today. The piece has
Spanish motifs throughout, and launched a period when Spanish-themed music came into vogue. (
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', whi ...
's opera ''Carmen'' premiered a month after the ''Symphonie espagnole''.)
The ''Symphonie espagnole'' is one of Lalo's two most often played works, the other being his Cello Concerto (Lalo), Cello Concerto in D minor.
Structure
The piece has five Movement (music), movements:
A typical performance runs just over half an hour. One of the shorter recordings, conductor Eugene Ormandy's 1967 recording with the Philadelphia Orchestra, featuring violinist Isaac Stern, runs 32 minutes and 43 seconds. It was common practice until the middle of the 20th century for performances of the work to omit the Intermezzo,
leaving a four-movement work that more closely reflected the traditional structure of a symphony.
Influence on Tchaikovsky
The ''Symphonie espagnole'' had some influence on the genesis of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto (Tchaikovsky), Violin Concerto in D major. Other Russian composers like Mikhail Glinka, Glinka had travelled to Spain, starting a vogue among young Russian composers for the bolero and Spanish subjects. Tchaikovsky loved Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart's "Don Giovanni" (set in Seville), heard Bizet's "Carmen" during its opening run in 1876, and later played castanets during a performance of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Rimsky-Korsakov's "Capriccio Espagnol" in 1887, as reported by cellist Yulian Poplavsky, who knew Tchaikovsky at the time ("Tchaikovsky Through Others’ Eyes" (Indiana University Press, 1999), pp. 236–237).
In March 1878, Tchaikovsky was staying at Nadezhda von Meck's estate at Clarens, Switzerland, Clarens, Switzerland, while recovering from the breakdown of his disastrous marriage and his subsequent suicide attempt. His favourite pupil (and allegedly his lover), the violinist Iosif Kotek, shortly arrived from Berlin with a lot of new music for violin. His collection included the ''Symphonie espagnole'', which he and Tchaikovsky played through to great delight. This gave Tchaikovsky the idea of writing a violin concerto, and he immediately set aside his current work on a piano sonata and started on the concerto on 17 March.
With Kotek's technical help, the concerto was finished by 11 April.
References
External links
*
* Marek Pavelec's performance of the work: Mvt
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Concertante symphonies
Compositions by Édouard Lalo
Compositions for violin and orchestra
Violin concertos, Lalo
1874 compositions
Compositions in D minor