Reznicek, Emil Nikolaus von

Emil Nikolaus von Rezniçek
 – Violin Concerto (1918)

(b. Vienna, 4 May 1860 – d. Berlin, 2 August 1945)

Preface
Emil Reznicek was born in Vienna on May 4, 1860, and grew up in a household without financial worries, but his memories of childhood were not particularly happy ones. He was encouraged to study law. On the side he took composition and piano lessons with Wilhelm Mayer (also known as W.A. Remy) in Graz who had also studied law before choosing music as a profession. After a few years of studying law Reznicek also took the same path, turning to the Leipzig conservatory where he studied primarily with Carl Reineke and Salomon Jadasssohn. In 1894 his Donna Diana opera was first performed and solidified his success as a composer, and indeed, the overture to this opera remains a popular orchestral piece in its own right. He remained active as a composer until around 1933 and the beginning of the Second World War. During the early war years, he worked closely with Richard Strauss to champion non-dodecaphonic composers in Germany and the rest of Europe. He was politically cool in a volatile political climate, and his family was much divided on the subject of fascism. His health was also very bad: he suffered deeply from depression, had a stroke, and became increasingly senile. On August 2, 1945 he succumbed to typhoid during a breakout of dysentery in Berlin.

He wrote 3 pieces for violin and orchestra in the first 20 years of the 20th century. The first was the Nachtstueck of 1905, followed by two concertos in 1918: the Concert Piece (in E-major), and the Violin Concerto (first movement in E-minor). These two pieces are often incorrectly conflated into one. In fact, the Violin Concerto was born from the Concert Piece, but other than about two minutes of music from the second movement, they are completely different and separate compositions. Carl Flesch declined to premiere the Concerto, finding it derivative and reminiscent of de Berio. The first performance was in 1924 by Wladyslaw Waghalter at the Berlin College of the Arts. Reznicek however considered the official premiere to be in 1940 with violinist Alice Schoenfeld, whose interpretation Reznicek considered more true. …

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