Evolution of the violin concerto in the works by Mendelssohn.
The genre of violin concerto has gone through a long way of its devel-opment, being changed and transformed under the influence of new styles, and reflecting the artistic demands of public life. This genre dates back to the epoch of Baroque music. That was the time when the characteristics of music drama-turgy were defined. The most important of them was the principle of competition which was originally the basis for the concerti grossi by A. Corelli, J. S. Bach (e. g. Brandenburg concertos) and other composers of the time. In their concertos the principle of competition was put in practice between the orchestra and a group of soloists. The genre of solo concerto was established as a competition between a soloist and an orchestra (tutti, solo), first of all, in works of Vivaldi, a bright representative of the Baroque era. The expressive possibilities of the soloist and the orchestra were dramatically enhanced, new formative genre principles were determined and established in the works of the Viennese classics – Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn. Symphonization, a well-established ternary form, and the use of sonata allegro in the first part are an example of changing the expressive possibilities of a solo concerto by the com-posers of this era. Further understanding of the concerto genre is associated with the Romantic era and is clearly represented in the works of F. Mendelssohn. He actively man-ifested himself in many areas of social and cultural life – he was an outstand-ing pianist, performer, conductor and teacher. In his compositions Mendelssohn combined Romantic tendencies and Classical traditions. This paper discusses the process of the composer’s creative growth on the example of his early, youthful concerto d-moll. When creating this concerto F. Mendelssohn, quite naturally, drew on the for-mative principles of Viennese classics, his predecessors. During this period of work at the concerto Mendelssohn was under a great influence of his mentors – composer K. Zelter and violinist Eduard Rietz, as well as a famous German violinist, composer and teacher L. Spohr. Concerto for violin and chamber orchestra d-mollhas sur-vived in two composer’s editions, the second one was completed at the age of 13. Comparing them one can see how radically different they are, how quickly the composer changes and complicates the principles for the development of musical material, enriches performance techniques and means of expression. This relates, in particular, to the first movement Allegro molto, the first edition of which employs relatively simple texture and development techniques. The composer widely uses sequence constructions on the basis of semiquavers, which recreate the character of continuous, forward movement, and constructions resembling the so-called “Alber-ti basses” in piano technique. In this concerto he changes the approach to the artistic role and value of violin cadenzas . Thus, the first movement has no cadenzas, and the second and third movements of the concerto have small solo constructions, the result of Mozart’s influence, whose concertos have violin cadenzas integrated into the structure of all movements of the form. Many experimental “tests of the pen”, search for the personal vision of expressing Felix Mendelssohn’s artistic ideas were embodied in the second, mature, violin concerto e-moll, created in 1844. The con-certo submits deep and rich content, dominance of the lyrical element. The com-poser undoubtedly uses the experience gained while creating his youthful works in this genre. He takes a new approach to the role and place of the cadenza in the first movement, introduces the cadenza into the development and writes it himself, as the composers before him did not write out cadenzas, each musician performed their own version. This innovation was immediately picked up by Romantic com-posers, and was typical for this genre. The concerto employs many virtuoso violin performing techniques and means of expression developed by the representatives of romantic performance. For instance, in the cadenza the composer uses the rico-chet bowing, on the basis of which the first N. Paganini Caprice was written. In the third movement of the concerto there are many leaps in tessitura, which emphasize the brightness and liveliness of musical images, and staccato volant (flying stacca-to), which was skillfully used by the virtuoso romantic H. Wieniawski. Compared with youthful concerto, here the composer enriches his favourite sequence con-structions which acquire graceful “ligature” of melodic motive complexes. Thus, this evolution, the process of creative growth can be seen in the genre of violin concerto in F. Mendelssohn works but not in works of other composers who, as a rule, published their pieces in their mature years, in periods marked by significant experience and composer’s virtuosity.