Rubinstein, Anton

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Rubinstein, Anton

Concert pour le Violon Op. 46 (Piano Reduction/Solo)

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Rubinstein, Anton

Concert pour le Violon Op. 46 (Piano Reduction/Solo)

(b. Vikhvatinets, 28 November 1829 – d. Peterhof, nr. St. Petersburg, 20. November 1894)

Moderato assai p.3
Andante p.26
Moderato assai p.35

Preface
As in Germany, Russian art music of the nineteenth century fell into two opposing camps: the so-called “Mighty Handful” (including Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov), who sought to develop a national Russian music based on the tradition of Mikhail Glinka, and the “Westerners,” including the brothers Anton and Nikolai Rubinstein and later Peter Tchaikovsky,1 who took their stylistic and generic bearings on the classical-romantic tradition of western Europe.

One of Anton Rubinstein’s major accomplishments was to professionalize musical life in Russia, making it possible to pursue the ideals of western art music. An important milestone was the founding of the conservatories in St. Petersburg and Moscow, where the Rubinstein brothers played signal roles as initiators and stimulators.2 Both institutions developed into musical training centers of international stature whose high reputation continues to the present day.

But it was not only in Russia that Anton Rubinstein gained great esteem during his lifetime. He was also active in western Europe and the USA as a composer, pianist, and conductor.3 Besides concert tours, he occupied the prestigious post of artistic director of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna (1871-72),4 which was then already considered the world capital of music. To the end of his days he maintained friendly relations with such famous musical contemporaries as Franz Liszt and the violinist Henryk Wieniawski.5 It was the latter who received the dedication of his G-major Violin Concerto (op. 46), hereby published in full score.

Like most of Rubinstein’s works, the Violin Concerto 1857 reflects his orientation on western European art music. Its formal design and the shaping of its movements clearly reveal features of the nineteenth-century concerto, pursuing a line of tradition that largely derives from the works of Ludwig van Beethoven and became de rigueur for later generations of composers. Its formal outline follows the fast-slow-fast sequence of movements typical of the nineteenth-century concerto. Moreover, the opening movement and the finale reveal essential sonata-form elements characteristic of the classical and romantic periods.

Though written for a virtuoso (the aforementioned Henryk Wieniawski), Rubinstein’s op. 46 cannot be classified as a typical “virtuoso concerto,” where the focus lies on the display of virtuosity and the predominance of the soloist while the orchestra merely adds a subordinate accompaniment. Elements less suitable for virtuoso display are underplayed, including the slow middle movement, which was often very short and functioned as an introduction to the finale, where the soloist could again indulge in pyrotechnic virtuosity

For more information on the piece:

Read the preface of the full score > HERE

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