Caitlin Johnson and Professor Alexander Woods, Music

I began my project with two purposes: to compile a history of the evolution of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35, including the compositional process, premiere history, different editions, and performance tradition; and to synthesize that research in an informed performance of the concerto. The Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto is a landmark in the genre’s evolution. Initially deemed too difficult to play and too transgressive of musical norms, the concerto received vitriolic reviews. Between the concerto’s genesis and its acceptance as a classic, it was altered to produce the several versions performed today. The edits made by performer and pedagogue Leopold Auer, contemporary of Tchaikovsky, are the best known. Auer later championed the concerto, but not before making substantial changes.

The goal of my project was to answer, at least in part, the question performers today face of which version to play. I consulted writings by and about Tchaikovsky and Auer. I explored Auer’s motives for editing the concerto and found three considerations for modern violinists. First, Auer contradicted himself in his writings. He recorded in one account that he doubted the concerto’s intrinsic value and recorded in another that he had no doubt as to the concerto’s intrinsic worth. Second, Auer wrote that his personal taste influenced how and what he performed. Finally, Auer eliminated several repetitions in the third movement. The concerto is distinctly Russian, and some criticisms of the concerto are actually criticisms of Russian nationalism, especially the finale’s repetitive Russian folk melodies. I argue that by removing many of the thematic repetitions, Auer diminishes the movement’s folk character. We do not know if lessening the Russian character was one of Auer’s objectives, but it is one of the edits’ effects.

The concerto is distinctly Russian, and so was the composer, though Tchaikovsky’s national identity as a composer is debated. Some scholars claim he was essentially Western, while others argue that he was strictly Russian. In reality, he often composed with Russian themes but used Western methods. In other words, he belonged to both camps.

My paper also considers how Auer’s less Russian, more Western version gained prominence over Tchaikovsky’s original. Auer, a famous conservatory professor, taught his version to his many famous pupils, who performed the concerto worldwide.

It is not possible to say definitively that one version is superior. The performer’s personal taste and the audience certainly play a role in finding one best version. Ultimately, each performer must decide whether to play Tchaikovsky’s original concerto, Auer’s edited version, or a combination of both, but these three considerations outline some advantages and disadvantages of the versions. My research is not exhaustive, and more research is needed to discover other considerations on Auer’s version and the other lesser-known, edited versions.

In my performances, I have opted to play some of Auer’s edits in the first movement, to play Tchaikovsky’s original second movement, and to take Auer’s cuts in the third movement but not his melodic changes. I will play this version at my senior recital on January 16, 2014, in the Madsen Recital Hall in the HFAC at BYU. I have had several other opportunities to perform the concerto and share my research. I performed the whole concerto as part of the JFSB’s Education in Zion Concert Series. As the first place winner of the collegiate strings division of the 2014 Utah Music Teachers Association Concerto Competition, I performed the first movement at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square in March 2014. The generous ORCA Grant helped me fund a summer study abroad in Vienna, where the unedited concerto was premiered, to take lessons from Viennese violinists. These lessons supplemented my weekly lessons during the school year with Professor Alexander Woods at BYU. I gave a short lecture recital on my findings in my string literature class. Furthermore, I had the opportunity to present my paper at the international musicology conference “Music and shared imaginaries: nationalisms, communities, and choral singing” at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, in October 2014.