Joseph Joachim's Violin Concerto in G Minor, Op. 3, bears, in terms of both the circumstances of its creation and its musical conception, salient proof of Joachim's close connection to Weimar and Franz Liszt during the early years of his artistic path. Overshadowed by his later compositions and probably also owing to Joachim's distancing of himself from the Lisztian circle, the composition nearly fell into oblivion. Newly examined sources, including unpublished letters by Joachim and Liszt, personal records, and scores, as well as a reconsideration of already known evidence, contribute to an enhanced understanding of the concerto's compositional history and document layers of substantial revisions leading up to the work's publication. The contextualization of these sources yields further insights into the relationship and interaction between Joachim and his circle. Lastly, a closer examination of explicit statements and subtexts found in Joachim's letters provides clues regarding his compositional approach.

Introduction

Joachim's Op. 3 appeared in print in late 1854, after Joachim had assumed his position as Konzertmeister at the Hanoverian court and was making concert tours in continental Europe and the British Isles. Its genesis, though, reaches back at least as far as his time at Weimar, where he served as concertmaster of the court Kapelle from 1850 through 1852 under Franz Liszt. The dedication (“FRANZ LISZT gewidmet”) printed on the cover conveys the connection to Ilm-Athens and the Lisztian circle (Figure 14-1). Liszt responded to Joachim's gesture by dedicating his Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 in C-sharp Minor (S 244/12) to Joachim, who was responsible for the revision of the violin part in the version for piano and violin. Both Joachim's Overture to Hamlet Op. 4 (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1854) and his Overture to Herman Grimm's Demetrius Op. 6, which remains unpublished, demonstrate the close connection and reciprocal appreciation between the two men, the first overture bearing a dedication to the members of the Weimar Kapelle, the second dedicated to Liszt.

Andreas Moser mentions the G-minor concerto in his Joachim biography rather en passant, without going into detail and in an almost “apologetic tone for Joachim's sympathies for Liszt.”