# Your Top 20 Favorite Violin Concertos from 20th Century



## Andante Largo (Apr 23, 2020)

As in the title.

My top 20 favorite violin concertos from 20th century are:

Karłowicz - Violin Concerto in A major, Op. 8 (1902)
Röntgen - Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor (1902)
Respighi - Violin Concerto in A major, P.049 (1903)
Perosi - Violin Concerto No. 1 (1903)
Sibelius - Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 (1905) 
Reger - Violin Concerto in A major, Op. 101 (1908)
Respighi - Concerto all'antica, P.075 (1908)
Stojowski - Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 22 (1908)
Gernsheim - Violin Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 86 (1912) 
Melartin - Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 60 (1913)
Młynarski - Violin Concerto No. 2 in D major, Op. 16 (1916)
Perosi - Violin Concerto No. 2 (1916)
Respighi - Concerto gregoriano, P.135 (1921)
Castelnuovo-Tedesco - Concerto Italiano for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 31 (1924)
Peterson-Berger - Violin Concerto in F-sharp minor (1928)
Castelnuovo-Tedesco - Violin Concerto No. 2 'I Profeti', Op. 66 (1931)
Röntgen - Violin Concerto No. 3 in F-sharp minor (1931)
Wetz - Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 57 (1932)
Graener - Violin Concerto in B minor (1936)
Dohnányi - Violin Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 43 (1950)


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

14 among my top choices would be

- Sibelius /Gitlis
- Elgar /Igor Oistrakh (!)
- Szymanowski 1,2
- Prokofiev 1,2
- Hartmann Funebre
- Bartok 2 /Gitlis
- Shostakovich 1 
- Zimmermann Cto
- Taktakishvili 1
- Rochberg Cto
- Pettersson 2 /Haendel
- Schnittke 4


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

1. *Rochberg*: Violin Concerto (Peter Shepard Skaerved/Christopher Lyndon-Gee/Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orch.) NAXOS
2. *Prokofiev*: Violin Concerto #1 (Cho-Liang Lin/Esa-Pekka Solanen/Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra) Sony/CBS
3. *Stravinsky*: Violin Concerto (Cho-Liang Lin/Esa-Pekka Solanen/Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra) Sony/CBS
4. *Berg*: Violin Concerto (Isaac Stern/Leonard Bernstein/New York Phihamonic Orchestra) Sony/CBS
5. *Shostakovich*: Violin Concerto (David Oistrakh/Dimitri MItroupolos/New York Philharmonic Orchestra) Sony/CBS
6. *Sibelius*: Violin Concerto (David Oistrakh/Eugene Ormandy/Philadelphis Orchestra) Sony/CBS
7. *Barber*: Violin Concerto (Isaac Stern/Leonard Bernstein/New York Philharmonic Orchestra) Sony/CBS
8. *Britten*: Violin Concerto (Mark Lubotsky/Benjamin Britten/English Chamber Orchestra) Decca
9. *Khachaturian*: Violin Concerto (Itzhak Perlman/Zubin Mehta/Israel Philharmonic Orchestra) EMI
10. *Glass*: Violin Concerto (Gidon Kremer/Christoph von Dohnanyi/Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra) DG


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

joen_cph said:


> 14 among my top choices would be
> 
> - Sibelius /Gitlis
> - Elgar /Igor Oistrakh (!)
> ...


Glad to see someone else likes the Rochberg VC. Isaac Stern recorded it in an edited form in the early 1970s, but the NAXOS recording with Peter Shepard Skaerverd is the restored version endorsed by the composer that is the one to own. Rochberg's VC has all the athleticism of Prokofiev's VC #1, and the all the expressiveness of the Berg VC (Berg composed his VC to memorialize the death of his daughter, and Rochberg composed hi on the death of his son). The Rochberg is also a very long VC that has all the breadth of a Mahler symphony.


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## FastkeinBrahms (Jan 9, 2021)

Good list, I would include Dvarionas B Minor, which fans of Shostakovich 1 should like, and the Korngold concerto to bring it up to 14.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

No particular order.

And a few of these are from the 21st century. Oh well...

Alban Berg - Violin Concerto (1935)
Krzysztof Penderecki - Violin Concerto Nº2 "Metamorphosen" (1992-1995)
Bela Bartok - Violin Concerto No. 2 (1938)
K. A. Hartmann - Concerto funebre for violin and string orchestra (1939)
Erkki-Sven Tüür Violin Concerto No. 2, "Angel's Share" (2018)
Elliott Carter - Violin Concerto (1990)
Thomas Adès - Violin Concerto "Concentric Paths" (2005)
Joan Tower - Violin Concerto (1992)
Magnus Lindberg - Violin Concerto No. 2 (2015)
Roger Sessions - Violin Concerto (1935)
Augusta Read Thomas - Violin Concerto No. 1 "Spirit Musings" (1997)
Samuel Barber - Violin Concerto
Harrison Birtwistle – Concerto for Violin and Orchestra 
Peter Maxwell Davies - Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
Michael Tippet - Triple Concerto for Violin, Viola, Cello and Orchestra
Charles Wuorinen - Concertante II for Violin and Chamber Orchestra
Bruno Maderna - Concerto per violino e orchestra
Esa Pekka Salonen - Violin Concerto
Einojuhani Rautavaara - Violin Concerto
Arnold Schoenberg - Violin Concerto 
György Ligeti - Violin Concerto
George Rochberg - Violin Concerto
Sofia Gubaidulina - Offertorium - Concerto For Violin And Orchestra


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

Simon Moon said:


> No particular order.
> 
> And a few of these are from the 21st century. Oh well...
> 
> ...


wot no schuman?


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

Once again this century has my favorite works in the genre:

Alwyn
Barber
Bartók 2
Britten
Castelnuovo-Tedesco 1
Hindemith
Khachaturian
Korngold
Ligeti
Moeran
Nielsen
Pettersson 2 (a draining work)
Penderecki 1
Respighi _Concerto gregoriano_
Rozsa
Shostakovich 1
Sibelius
Stravinsky
Szymanowski 2
Tubin 1


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

1.	Karol Szymanowski's Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 35 (1916)
2.	Marius Constant's "103 Regards dans l'eau" (1981), for solo violin and orchestra
3.	Einojuhani Rautavaara's Violin Concerto (1976-77)
4.	William Walton's Violin concerto (1938-1939)
5.	Aarre Merikanto's 1925 op. 30 Violin Concerto #2
6.	Henri Dutilleux's Violin Concerto "L'arbre des Songes" (1983-1985)
7.	Richard Rodney Bennett's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1975)
8.	Arne Nordheim's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1996)
9.	Giacinto Scelsi's "Anahit" for Violin and Chamber Orchestra (1965)
10.	André Jolivet's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1972)

11.	Ottorino Respighi's "Poema autunnale" per violino e orchestra (1925)
12.	Benjamin Frankel's 1951 Violin Concerto in Memory of the Six Million
13.	Violin Concerto (1945-1950) by Carlos Chávez
14.	Aubert Lemeland's 1992 Concerto pour violon n°2 Opus 148
15.	Robert Farnon's Rhapsody For Violin And Orchestra (1958)
16.	Frederik van Rossum's 1980 Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1, op. 37
17.	Bent Sørensen's violin concerto "Sterbende Gärten" (1992-1993)
18.	Morton Feldman's 1979 Violin and Orchestra
19.	Fartein Valen's Op.37 Concerto for violin and orchestra (1940)
20.	Maurice Jarre's Mobiles for Violin and Orchestra (1961)

[special mention for Geirr Tveitt's two concerti for Hardanger fiddle  ]


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## Kilgore Trout (Feb 26, 2014)

Including some from the 21th century:

1. Dean "The lost art of letter writing" (2006)
2. Shostakovich (1948)
3. Schönberg (1936)
4. Britten (1939)
5. Hersch (2015)
6. Szymanowski 2 (1933)
7. Fagerlund "Darkness in light" (2012)
8. McCabe 2 (1980)
9. Bartok 2 (1938)
10. Ginastera (1963)
11. Henze 2 (1971)
12. Dusapin Aufgang (2011)
13. Zimmermann (1950)
14. Zykan "Da drunten im Tale" (2004)
15. Bacewiz 3 (1948)
16. Schafer "The Darkly Splendid Earth: The Lonely Traveller" (1991)
17. Jolivet (1972)
18. Bose (1999)
19. Schnittke Concerto grosso n°5 (1991)
20. Chin (2001)


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## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

1. Sibelius
2. RVW's The Lark Ascending (which I think can be loosely considered a violin concerto)
3. Elgar

I actually forgot that the Glazunov concerto was written in 1904:
4. Glazunov (I may actually put it ahead of Elgar's)


That's about it.


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

My favourites as of today, based on what I actually pull off the shelf and listen too .....

Bartok 1&2
Ligeti
Gubaidulina
Schuman
Berg
Schoenberg
Moeran

It's the Moeran that I've listened to most recently and is my current favourite .........


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## John O (Jan 16, 2021)

I will stick with 4:

Sibelius - unique and the only 20c to be in the Big 5
Prokofiev 1 - very influential
Bartok 2
Ligeti - again very influential on 21c ,


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

Barber
Bartók 2
Berg
Dutilleux
Gernsheim 2 
Hindemith
Korngold
Melartin
Pfitzner
Prokofiev 1
Prokofiev 2 
Röntgen 1 
Reger
Reznicek 
Shostakovich 1
Sibelius
Stravinsky
Szymanowski 2
Walton
Wetz


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## chu42 (Aug 14, 2018)

1. Ligeti
2. Ginastera
3. Prokofiev 1
4. Schoenberg
5. Bartok 1
6. Bartok 2
7. Sibelius
8. Berg
9. Rosza
10. Stravinsky
11. Martinu 2
12. Shostakovich 1
13. Prokofiev 2
14. Britten
15. Rochberg
16. Walton 
17. Weinberg
18. Barber
19. Glazunov
20. Bernstein

For me the Ligeti concerto is incredibly beautiful and one of the greatest works of the 20th century.


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## Doctor Fuse (Feb 3, 2021)

Bartok No. 2
Prokofiev No. 2
Weill
Prokofiev No. 1
Stravinsky
Bernstein Serenade (its a concerto!)
Sibelius
Shostakovich No. 1
Barber
Berg
Lindberg’s mesmerizing Violin Concerto No. 1 (oops, it's from the 21st century, methinks?)


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## Doctor Fuse (Feb 3, 2021)

Must track down the Ginastera! Never heard of it!


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## chu42 (Aug 14, 2018)

Doctor Fuse said:


> Must track down the Ginastera! Never heard of it!


I would actually recommend first listening to Ginastera's Guitar Sonata and 1st Piano Concerto.











If you like these, then you'll have a better chance of enjoying his Violin Concerto.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

These five are the best of the century for me:

Bax (1937)
Berg (1935)
Moeran (1942)
Shostakovich 1 (1948)
Sibelius (1904)

To come to 20 I'd certainly add:

Barber, Elgar, Karlowicz, Korngold, Myaskovsky, Nielsen, Prokofiev 1+2, Sallinen, Shostakovich 2

Beyond that there are plenty of further candidates - not picking them now.


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