Concerto in C major for violin and orchestra, "In the Style of Vivaldi" FRITZ KREISLER (1875-1962) Vivaldi was to the concerto what Haydn would be to the symphony and Schubert to the art song. They didn't invent a new genre from scratch, rather they excelled in an existing one, and thus gave it a central place in the artistic activity. The concerto after Vivaldi was no longer a marginal genre, and almost every great composer, from Bach to Ligeti, from Handel to Messiaen, composed at least one concerto, most of them many more than one. The "Red Priest", as he was called, wrote hundreds of concertos. Their popularity has had ups and downs over the years, but today they are highly appreciated by both the public and musicologists. Is there any classical piece more popular than "The Four Seasons"? One violinist who played Vivaldi's concertos was the AustrianAmerican virtuoso Fritz Kreisler. He was considered as one the greatest violinists of his time, and also composed and transcribed many works for the violin. He published the Concerto in C major in 1927, but it is possible that it was written some years before. It was the golden era of Neoclassicism, a movement which flourished in the years after WW1, in which composers sought to go back to models of the past, especially the Baroque and the Viennese Classicism. While the Neoclassicism of Stravinsky, Hindemith and Schoenberg was a blend of 18th century models and 20th century musical language, Kreisler wanted his music to be much closer to the past. In fact, for several years he insisted that Vivaldi himself wrote this concerto. The concerto reminds the style of Vivaldi due to various elements. First, its proportions are similar to Vivaldi's. Average performance takes no longer than 12 minutes and the accompanying orchestra consists of only strings and organ, very different from the 40 minute symphonic concertos of Romanticism. ca. 12 mins. Allegro energico ma non troppo Andante doloroso Allegro molto
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