Violinist Amalia Hall Photo: Supplied
American composer Samuel Barber, best known for his 'Adagio for Strings', wrote his concerto for violin just before war broke out in 1939 and completed it the year after. It includes all the trademark melody and lyricism that made him one the America's most popular composers.
At the time Barber was a professor of composition at the Curtis Institute of Music and the piece came out of a connection he’d made there. A businessman and successful soap manufacturer named Samuel Fels served on the board of Curtis and promptly offered the new professor a commission. He was to write a new concerto for Iso Briselli, a Curtis violin student Fels was interested in assisting.
Unfortunately, Briselli and his violin coach didn’t like what Barber had written for the finale, so Barber, unwilling to change his music, found a new recipient, the eminent Albert Spalding. Spalding was on the lookout for an American piece to add to his concerto repertoire and signed on instantly.
The first and second movements are lyrical and melodic. The finale is quite a contrast. It’s played at breakneck speed, never pauses for breath, utilises rhythmic complexities and accents that are brutal in their effect, and is about half the length of either of the first two movements. It’s also incredibly virtuosic, with the solo violin playing in a perpetual, continual motion with only two orchestral breaks.
Just like the composer, soloist Amalia Hall also studied at the Curtis Institute of Music. One of this country’s finest musicians, Amalia has been a guest performer with orchestras across the world. In 2016 she was appointed as Concert Master of Orchestra Wellington and became New Zealand’s youngest concert master in the process.
Recorded 19 October 2019 in Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington by RNZ Concert
Producer/Sound engineer: Darryl Stack
