San Francisco Symphony - Essay Example

The event has always been performed in the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall from the day it started. However, on February 13, 2014, I was privileged to form part of the audience at Mondavi Centre for a symphony concert that started at 8.00pm. The renowned San Francisco Symphony accompanied by the famous violinist, Simone Lamsma, performed the concert. Out of the many symphonies performed, I fell for Sibelius and Tchaikovsky’s compositions more compared to the rest. In this paper, I will outline the various characteristics that make up the two compositions in terms of instrumentation, classification, genres, and the overall performance of Violin concerto in D Minor, Opus 47 and Symphony No.

4 in F Minor, Opus 36. Jean Sibelius composed Violin Concerto in D Minor, Opus 47 in 1904 during the late romantic period. This concerto premiered in Helsinki with violinist Victor Novacek. What makes this piece unique is the fact that Sibelius provided an extended cadenza for the soloist, a feature that led to the development in sonata form first movement (Salmenhaara, 1996). Instrumentation of this performance consisted of flutes- trombones, clarinets, bassoons timpani, strings, trumpets, and horns-, among others.

This performance is made up of three movements particularly in Allegro moderato, Adagio di molto and Allegro ma non-troppo. The first movement in this concerto, allegro moderato, starts with a cushion of strings of pianissimo pulsating in a gentle manner. The soloist performing in a D Minor G-A-D follows this, after which, the violinist highlights the theme of the concerto, backed up by the clarinetist. This movement provides a beautiful rhythm, which is enhanced by the instruments and the double stops (Salmenhaara, 1996).

Allegro moderato ends in 2/2 time as it introduces the second theme. The second movement, Adagio di molto, is more lyrical than the other movements. Clarinet and oboes introduce this movement followed by a