This is the second classical excerpt from The Lugwig Van to appear here in the Music Library Project. What entails the ‘Music Library Project’?
It’s a delicious violin piece and one of the most early composed and frequently performed. When I had it playing in the background I couldn’t help but be cajoled into a state of pleasantry and playfulness. Try the same yourself and see where it leads you. It’s a miracle how music can capture and transform the senses!
Strangely enough its first performance was unsuccessful and it faded into obscurity until a prodigious child Violinist (Joseph Joachim) in the London Philharmonic society 3 decades later made it popular.
According to wikipedia: Beethoven wrote the concerto for his colleague Franz Clement, a leading violinist of the day, who had earlier given him helpful advice on his opera Fidelio. The work was premiered on 23 December 1806 in the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, the occasion being a benefit concert for Clement. The first printed edition (1808) was dedicated to Stephan von Breuning.
It is believed that Beethoven finished the solo part so late that Clement had to sight-read part of his performance. Perhaps to express his annoyance, or to show what he could do when he had time to prepare, Clement is said to have interrupted the concerto between the first and second movements with a solo composition of his own, played on one string of the violin held upside down; however, other sources claim that he did play such a piece but only at the end of the performance.
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
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