Darius Milhaud: Concerto for violin and orchestra No 1 op 93 (1927)
Darius Milhaud
Born 4 Sept. 1892 in Marseille
died 22 June 1974 in Geneva
First performance:
1928 by Suzanne Suter-Sapin
Recordings:
Arabella Steinbacher 2004
Martina Bačová 2022
Darius Milhaud, one of France's most exciting composers, widely travelled, a globetrotter with inspiring ideas and an enormous creative drive, described himself as a musician for everyday
use. He could set anything to music, whether Jewish chants, a catalogue of flower seeds or a papal encyclical (Pacem in terris, by John XXIII). His oeuvre comprises around 400 compositions, for
opera, theatre, concert, ballet, film and for whatever else he could be used. In general, Milhaud was a cosmopolitan who moved to Brazil as an attaché with his poet friend Paul Claudel at a young
age, who later had to flee from the Nazis into exile in the USA as a Jew and who, as a passionate artist and composer, was constantly travelling and composing everywhere.
The fact that more traditional compositional forms for violin and orchestra can also be found in his work was not least due to commissions he received from violinists. However, there
are only three violin concertos by Milhaud, although Milhaud himself learnt to play the violin in his youth. But as in all his works, he also wanted to do justice to the violin and its
possibilities.
As part of the plea for unknown violin concertos, which is the aim of this homepage, I would like to draw your attention to a very special mini violin concerto by Darius Milhaud, namely the
first violin concerto by Darius Milhaud from 1927, from a time when Milhaud belonged to the Six group in Paris (Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Francis Poulenc, Germaine Tailleferre
and Darius Milhaud). Together they rejected German Romantic (especially Wagnerian) music and the Impressionism of Debussy, were generally opposed to anything ‘perfumed’ (Jean Cocteau) and
orientated themselves towards jazz, music-hall, light and popular music.
Milhaud's first violin concerto was commissioned by the violinist Suzanne Suter-Sapin, who incidentally also commissioned the violin concerto by Wladimir Vogel. Milhaud was travelling in the
USA and used the long journey from Denver to Chicago to compose. This three-movement concerto, which lasts just 10 minutes, shows that the sounds of the travelling train were productive for
Milhaud. Despite the tonal complexity of Milhaud's compositional style, it also features fascinating melodies. The second movement in particular stands out.
Listen to it here:
Movement 1
Movement 2
Movement 3
Listening companion:
I. Prélude. Modérément animé
Shrilly, but at a moderate tempo, a downward-rolling motif is set in motion, to which the solo violin responds twice with figurations in which it takes over this motif in a hidden manner. After upward counter-movements in the orchestra and the motif rolling downwards again in the basses, the machine is set in motion and you can hear the whistling of escaping steam in the flutes and then in the violin. The orchestra, especially the bassoon, and the violin drive each other forwards, rhythmically more and more striking, until the rolling driving motif and a rising violin reaction are heard again like a ritornello.
The machine then seems to lose momentum, allowing the violin to come to the fore a little more with its preluding figurations. After a clarinet run in the orchestra, melting double stops in the violin's high register take over the driving motif. Then the locomotive effectively slows down and, left alone, the violin plunges downwards from the highest fantasies in a soloistic run back to the present. Then another jerk of the engine and everything comes to a standstill.
II. Romance. Sans hâte
In A flat major, the solo violin opens a lyrical romance, in a leisurely, montonous serenade. Nothing is in a hurry, a stopover, still a little dazed from the journey. A horn can be heard with an
additional melody and the orchestra interweaves with the violin lyricism. The violin rises to higher regions. In melting thirds and sixths, it muses along, rhythmically still monotonous and
leisurely, and sings itself out. Then the voices of the orchestra take over the calm theme from the beginning. The solo violin repeats it in a high violin register, while the winds of the
orchestra quietly sing the thirds and sixths. The melodic Milhaud concludes the simple, beautiful movement in the most beautiful tonal mood.
III. Final. Vivement
Then the journey continues. Ready to travel, the violin starts with an energetic solo, the orchestra joins in with trumpet fanfares. The violin leads this lively movement rhythmically, with
the orchestra providing rhythmic support. A short lyrical episode in the violin sounds like a second theme, but here we are beyond classical forms, the violin surprisingly rises to a weighty
cadenza and makes it the centrepiece of this last short movement, virtuosic and lyrical. But with the musically original sounds of a railway on the journey from Denver to Chicago, we come to the
end.