Think of the British composer Edward Elgar, and it's a fair bet his brooding, mournful, wonderful Cello Concerto comes to mind.
And how could you not? When the soloist's bow bites into those stark E minor chords, it's like a summons - and not to cocktails and a gossip. Elgar began writing his great Cello Concerto towards the end of the First World War, as his Edwardian world was falling apart. And with such magnificent advocates as legendary cellist Jacqueline du Pré, who met her own very tragic end, the work cannot help but be highly romantic and passionate.
'Too emotional - but I love it'
But despite the Cello Concerto’s greater popularity today, Elgar considered his Violin Concerto to be among his best works. ‘It’s good! Awfully emotional! Too emotional, but I love it,’ he once declared.
It was the great violinist Fritz Kreisler who, in 1905, persuaded Elgar to compose his Violin Concerto. Over the next five years, Kreisler and London Symphony Orchestra concertmaster William Henry Reed made recommendations as the sprawling, 50-minute work took shape.
Kreisler declared the finished article the ‘greatest violin concerto produced since Beethoven’s’ and premiered the work in London, with Elgar conducting, in November 1910. It was an immediate success, and although there were plans for the two to record it, these eventually fell through, and Elgar instead recorded the Concerto with a young Yehudi Menuhin in 1932. So popular was Menuhin's recording that it has remained in the catalogues since it first went on sale.
The Violin Concerto is not only beautiful, but incredibly difficult...
Not only epic in length, the Violin Concerto has a reputation for being enormously challenging for the soloist, with its constant multiple stoppings and rapid string crossings.
According to Vilde Frang, who has just made a dazzling recording of the Elgar Violin Concerto: ‘It requires a lot of stamina because you are playing a lot. When you reach the third movement, you’re already exhausted and then you have all its hurdles to get through until you come to the cadenza.'
She continues: 'You don’t know the Concerto until you have kicked yourself on stage once. Only then do you know where the land lies. There are so many questions that you don’t get the answer to in the practice room, but that you get in the concert hall in the moment of performance. It’s a baptism of fire.’
Despite this, various artists have squared up to the work, including Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Nigel Kennedy, Thomas Zehetmair and Tasmin Little. The prize for the slowest and most indulgent recording goes to Ida Haendel, whose recording with Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic clocks in at over 55 minutes.
Love Elgar's Violin Concerto? Try these six works next...
If you love Elgar’s Violin Concerto for its its nobility, lyrical expansiveness, emotional depth, and rich late-Romantic orchestration, here are six wonderful works you should explore next. Each shares something of its spirit, whether in mood, style, or emotional weight:
1. Brahms Violin Concerto
Brahms's only violin concerto is a towering Romantic work, with orchestral richness, deep lyricism, and structural nobility that Elgar admired. The finale’s Hungarian flair adds extra fire.
2. Elgar Introduction and Allegro for Strings
This marvellous work has much of the same sweeping lyricism, noble melancholy, and virtuosic writing for strings that defines the Violin Concerto. Scored for string quartet and string orchestra, it weaves soloistic brilliance with lush ensemble textures. The opening is richly romantic, with echoes of Elgar’s beloved English countryside, while the fugue and development sections display his contrapuntal skill and passion for musical architecture.
3. Sibelius Violin Concerto
Sibelius’s Violin Concerto is a hauntingly lyrical and fiercely dramatic masterpiece. It fuses icy Nordic atmosphere with virtuosic fire, demanding both poetry and power from the soloist. Its sweeping melodies, brooding harmonies, and emotional depth make it one of the most distinctive and compelling concertos in the repertoire.
4. Richard Strauss Metamorphosen
A profound, sorrow-tinged elegy written at the end of WWII, Strauss's remarkable work for strings captures a similar sense of reflective grandeur. Its sweeping arcs, rich harmonies, and emotional depth make it a haunting, non-vocal lament—akin in spirit and tone to Elgar’s more meditative moments.
5. Walton Violin Concerto
Commissioned by Heifetz, this is a sweeping, romantic, and occasionally jazzy work from another great English composer. Lush, melancholic, and emotionally charged, the Walton Violin Concerto mirrors Elgar’s depth but with Walton’s own elegant modern voice.
6. Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending
Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending is a rapturous, soaring meditation on nature and longing. With its ethereal violin lines and pastoral warmth, it evokes the flight of a skylark above the English countryside. Serene yet emotionally resonant, it’s a transcendent work of quiet beauty and one of Britain’s most beloved compositions.
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