Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 by Ludwig van Beethoven
This work was composed in 1806 by the 36-year-old Beethoven while working in Vienna. At this point in his lifetime, Beethoven was gaining widespread recognition for his incredible skills as…
Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 by Ludwig van Beethoven
This work was composed in 1806 by the 36-year-old Beethoven while working in Vienna. At this point in his lifetime, Beethoven was gaining widespread recognition for his incredible skills as a pianist and composer. It is also during this year that he revealed to the general public that he was experiencing significant hearing difficulties, which would eventually lead to almost complete deafness by 1814.
The work is comprised of three movements:
I. Allegro ma non troppo (D major) 00:00
II. Larghetto (G major) 25:25
III. Rondo. Allegro (D major) 35:07
The piece was first performed on the 23rd of December 1806 in the Theatre an der Vien as part of a fund-raising concert for Franz Clement, a violinist and colleague of Beethoven. The performance was met with only mild success, leading to only minimal performances for the next few decades. The piece would be revived by Felix Mendelssohn in 1844 and is now considered one of the most notable of Beethoven’s compositions.
In 1806 Vienna was ostensibly under the control of Napoleon Bonaparte and the French Empire. After the Battle of Trafalgar the year before, British forces had essentially crippled the French navy - leading to Napoleon focusing on dominating the majority of Europe through land-based incursions.
To prevent Napoleon from taking the role of Holy Roman Emperor, the sixteen German Imperial states of the Empire dissolved the union in 1806 and formed their own ‘Confederation of the Rhine’. The Holy Roman Empire had stood for nearly over 1,000 years since the crowning of Charles the Great (Charlemagne) in the year 800 AD.
