Sibelius and the 20th Century — the Final Form of the Concerto and the Dissolution of Tonality

From the Final Form of the Romantic to the 20th Century

The lineage of the 19th-century great concerto reached one summit at the turn of the century, and then branched into the new musical languages of the 20th century. The instrument (the Cremonese masterworks) remained unchanged — but the music itself changed at its foundations.

Sibelius — the Final Form of the Romantic Concerto (1905)

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)’s Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 (premiered 1904, revised 1905) is regarded as the last great masterpiece of the Romantic concerto:

• Sibelius himself had aspired to be a violinist (turning to composition when the dream failed)
• The cold, solemn lyricism of the North; a solo violin sounding like a solitary figure on an ice field
• Highly combining virtuosity and musicianship, one of the hardest works
• The first version was too difficult and failed; the revised version (1905) brought its present fame

Sibelius’s concerto is “the last of the Romantic” and at the same time a herald of the cold sensibility of the 20th century.

The Second Viennese School — Beyond Tonality

In the early 20th century, the Second Viennese School of Schoenberg (1874-1951) and others dissolved tonality (the framework of major and minor):

• Atonality → twelve-tone technique (dodecaphony) — treating all 12 pitches equally
• Alban Berg (1885-1935)’s Violin Concerto (1935) — “To the memory of an angel.” Twelve-tone yet lyrical, one of the summits of the 20th-century concerto
• A Bach chorale is quoted, and atonality and tonality intersect

The Berg concerto is a rare example where “difficult modern music” and “deep emotion” coexist. It has taken hold as a representative 20th-century violin work.

Folk and the 20th Century — Bartók

Béla Bartók (1881-1945) fused Hungarian folk music with 20th-century idiom:

• Violin Concerto No. 2 (1938) — folk rhythm and avant-garde technique
• Sonata for Solo Violin (1944) — a 20th-century response to Bach’s solo works, dedicated to Menuhin
• Actively used special techniques (microtones, forceful pizzicato)

Bartók showed one 20th-century solution: “folk music + modern technique.”

Russia/the Soviet Union in the 20th Century

Prokofiev (1891-1953) and Shostakovich (1906-1975) left leading concertos under the Soviet regime:

• Prokofiev’s Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 — lyricism and irony together
• Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 (1948) — a deep, dark masterpiece written under the oppression of the regime, dedicated to the master David Oistrakh
• A life-and-death collaboration of soloist and composer (amid the danger of criticizing the regime)

These have become central repertoire today as concertos that record the spiritual history of the 20th century.

The Arrival of Recording — a Revolution for the Performer

The greatest change of the 20th century was not the works but the possibility of recording and reproducing performance:

• From around 1900 — SP records, then LP, CD, streaming
• Performance became a “permanent object of comparison” from “one-time-only”
• The “sound” of masters like Heifetz and Kreisler can be heard 100 years later (next article)
• Because “perfect performances” are preserved as recordings, the technical standard rose sharply overall

Recording changed violin performance at its foundations. The playing of masters became teaching material, and players around the world honed their skills using them as models. The perfectionism of the “recording age, where no mistakes are allowed” was born.

The Instrument Unchanged, the Music Transformed

Throughout the 20th century, the violin as an instrument did not change at all — the 300-year-old Cremonese masterworks remained the finest. But the music played on it:

• The dissolution of tonality (the Second Viennese School)
• The fusion of folk music (Bartók)
• The expansion of special techniques (microtones, percussive playing)
• Electrification (electric violin — jazz, rock, contemporary music)

“Playing ever-changing music on an unchanging instrument” — this is the figure of the 20th-century violin. In contrast to the piano as a “progressing instrument,” the violin walked a history of “pouring new wine into an unchanging vessel.”

From This Article to the Next

We have traced the transformation of 20th-century musical language and the shock of recording technology. The next article turns to the 20th-century master violinists who represent that recording age — the “king of the violin” Heifetz, the elegant Kreisler, the Soviet giant Oistrakh, and the pure-style Milstein — approaching the “sound” of the masters who colored performance history.