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Palau de la Música Catalana Carrer Palau de la Música 4-6, 08003 Barcelona
Image courtesy of the Palau de la Música.
Throughout music's history, many solo instruments' concerts have been written following the steps of a specific virtuoso. This is the case of Johannes Brahms' Violin Concerto, premiered in 1879. A work written for his friend and violinist Joseph Joachim, it contains many passages with great technical difficulty that were written with his friend’s talent in mind.
Another great violinist, Pablo Sarasate, reportedly called the work "the concerto against the violin."
In 1880, another younger composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, completed the third and final version of the 'Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy.' The initial idea to set music to The Lovers of Verona came from Mili Balakirev, who wrote a letter to Tchaikovsky in 1869 not only suggesting the composition of an overture to the story of Romeo and Juliet, but also including musical examples and possible ideal tonalities.
At the time, the young and insecure Pyotr Ilyich accepted his mentor's advice and even sent him the finished score for comment. The premiere of this first version took place in 1870. Ten years later, a mature Tchaikovsky, confident in his musical style, changed the introduction and modified the structure of the work until he achieved the amazing version we can enjoy today.
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