I was wondering if you knew what version of the Violin Concerto is the
one Tchaikovsky originally wrote? I read recently that the concerto was
altered by Auer so naturally
there are two sets of recordings out there and I want to finally establish
for myself (and hopefully others) which one was written by Tchaikovsky
himself.
Two places where there are the greatest differences, and probably hold
the clue, are in the third movement: firstly, after the initial opening
there is a short cadenza-like passage in the violin. Around sixteen bars
after this, there is a four-bar sequence with the strings that is repeated
three times before the wind enter. Some recordings that I have choose to
add this in, others omit.
Another place is in the final cadenza passage (about seven minutes in
or so), just before the re-entry of the main tune. In the recordings that
have the above passage included, the violin plays the repeating four
semiquaver figure on the G string. On the other recording, the solo violin
tends to do a virtuostic display and adds in a few bars that run up and
down the strings before the tune enters.
My initial-Tchaikovsky-gut-feeling (!) is that the editions that cut
the passage at the beginning in the third movement (and add the virtuostic
display later on) are the Auer version, and those that choose to include
them are the original—though, I was hoping you might be able to confirm
this!
Thomas A. Doyle
Your "gut feeling" is correct!
Brett Langston