Clement: Violin Concerto in D Major (1805)

Franz Clement’s Violin Concerto in D Major, premiered by its composer in 1805 at a concert in which Beethoven conducted his Eroica Symphony, undoubtedly exerted an important influence on Beethoven’s violin concerto (which was written for Clement the following year), not only in respect of the treatment of the solo instrument, but also in terms of musical content. Clement’s concerto is a piece of real substance that reveals an exceptionally gifted composer, capable of handling the musical idiom of his day with confidence and imagination. It stands alongside Beethoven’s masterpiece as a lonely example of an early-nineteenth-century violin concerto in the Viennese Classical idiom. The present violin part, published with a piano reduction, has been edited for performance, taking into account the known bowing and fingering practices of the period.

I. Allegro maestoso

II. Adagio

III. Rondo: Allegro