Experiencing the Violin Concerto: A Listener's Companion

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Since the eighteenth century, violin concertos have provided a showcase for dramatic interplay between a soloists virtuosity and the blended sonority of an orchestras many instruments. Using this genre to showcase skill and ingenuity, composers cemented the violin concerto as a key genre of classical music and gifted our ears with such timeless masterpieces as Vivaldis Four Seasons. In Experiencing the Violin Concerto, Franco Sciannameo draws on his years of scholarship and violin performance to trace the genre through Baroque, Classical, and modern periods. Along the way, he explores the social and personal histories of composers, and the fabulous virtuosi who performed concertos, and audiences they conquered worldwide. Inviting readers to consider not only the components of the music but also the power of perception and experience, Sciannameo recreates the atmosphere of a live performance as he paints a narrative history of technique and innovation. Experiencing the Violin Concerto uses descriptions in place of technical jargon to make the world of classical music accessible to amateur music lovers. As part of the Listeners Companion series, the volume gives readers an enhanced experience of key works by investigating the environments in which the works were written and first performed as well as those in which they are enjoyed today.

Reviews

Published in the Listener's Companion series, which is intended to give readers a deeper understanding of pivotal musical genres and ... iconic composers and performers, this volume offers historical background and somewhat sentimental, literary-styled stories. On the plus side, the book is comprehensive. All the genres are covered, and major violin composers are well represented. The book's organization is logical, as are the subsections within the chapters. . . .Summing Up: Recommended. . . . .Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; general readers. * CHOICE *
Violinist and scholar, Professor Sciannameo invites readers into the world of the violin concerto, tracing its history from The Four Seasons tothe pillars of modernism such as the Berg and Bartk, Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Prokofiev, Szymanowski and Martinu concertos. He also explores the stories of the composers who wrote these celebrated masterpieces, and the virtuosi who performed them. Sciannameo allows the reader to truly experience these fabled works by evoking the era and circumstances surrounding their genesis. * Stringendo *

Author Bio

Franco Sciannameo is professor and associate dean for Interdisciplinary Initiatives in the College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. He is the author of Nino Rota, Federico Fellini and the Making of an Italian Cinematic Folk Opera: Amarcord (2005); Giuseppe Mazzini's Philosophy of Music: Envisioning a Social Opera (1836) (2005); Nino Rota's The Godfather Trilogy (2010), and Phil Trajetta (1777-1854), Patriot, Musician, Immigrant (2010)