b'PROGRAM NOTESL udwig van Beethovens only violin concerto shattered conventional notions of what a Romantic solo concerto could or should be. Instead of making the concerto a vehicle to showcase the soloists technique, Beethoven placed the music front and center, while also giving the soloist plenty of opportunities to display musical and technical artistry. Twenty-one-year-old Franz Clement, music director and concertmaster of the Theater an der Wien, commissioned the Violin Concerto in 1806. After the premiere, Clement suggested revisions to the solo part, which Beethoven incorporated into his revised score. Even a masterwork can suffer from a mediocre performance. According to published accounts, Beethoven finished the concerto just two days before the premiere, which meant Clement had to sight-read the opening performance. Although it was beautiful and staggeringly difficult, the lack of adequate rehearsal, among other factors, left the Violin Concerto with a bad reputation that took 30 years to dispel. Thirty-eight years after the Concerto premiered, 12-year-old violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim played it at his debut with the London Philharmonic. Joachim pored over the score, memorized the entire piece, and composed his own cadenzas in preparation. The hard work paid off; one reviewer noted, [Joachim] is perhaps the finest violin player, not only of his age, but of his sicle [century]. He performed Beethovens solitary concerto, which we have heard all the great performers of the last twenty years attempt, and invariably fail inits performance was an eloquent vindication of the master-spirit who imagined it.Unlike Beethovens concertos for piano, which feature thick, dense chords and difficult scalar passages, the violin solo is graceful and lyrical. This warm expressiveness matched Clements style of playing, which Beethoven said exemplified an extremely delightful tenderness and purity. The concerto begins unconventionally, with five repeating notes in the timpani. This simple knocking is repeated, like a gentle but persistent heartbeat, throughout the movement, and becomes a recurring motif. In another distinctive break from tradition, the soloist does not enter for a full three minutes, and then begins a cappella (unaccompanied), before reiterating the first theme in a high register. The Larghettos main melody is stately, intimate, and tranquil, and becomes an orchestral backdrop over which the solo violin traces graceful arabesques in an ethereal high register. The soloist takes center stage in this movement, playing extended cadenzas and other passages with minimal accompaniment. The final Rondo-Allegro flows seamlessly from the Larghetto; the soloist launches immediately into a rocking melody that suggests a boat bobbing at anchor. Typical rondo format features a primary theme (A), which is interspersed with contrasting sections (B, C, D, etc.). Each of these contrasting sections departs from the (A) theme, sometimes in mood, sometimes by shifting from major to minor, or by changing keys entirely. 14 Santa Rosa Symphony(707) 546-8742'