Violin Concertos,
Sinfonia & Ouverture

There is something effusive about Mysliveček’s violin concertos, as if no thematic limitations apply to them. I was fascinated by this from the beginning, and it awakened my curiosity. From this music – like from the music of W. A. Mozart, Mysliveček’s contemporary and friend – one can hear that the author was also a superb opera composer: the quickly alternating themes are well defined in character, whether sounding serious or boisterous, pleading or alluring, questioning or majestic, friendly or imperious. Sometimes a new idea ties in with a previous one and elaborates on it, while elsewhere new ideas seem to treat the previous music with dismissive contempt. Figuratively, we find ourselves on the opera stage.

I have taken a theatrical approach to these concertos.
The Concerto in E major has moments of grandeur and splendour, but also melancholy – as if gazing towards a distant horizon.
The Concerto in A major, carefully worked out to the tiniest details, makes perhaps something of a capricious or even smug impression, while to me, the Concerto in D major represents a counterpart to Mozart’s Concerto in D major, KV 218: it is similarly definitive, radiant, and full of inner fire.

Mysliveček’s concertos are definitely more technically difficult than Mozart’s. (Incidentally, it is said that Mozart only began writing violin concertos after having heard a composition by his Czech colleague.)

The composer likes to use the instrument’s upper register, often even writing double stops in high positions – this virtuosic element suggests that Mysliveček must also have been an excellent violinist.

In particular, the slow movements show that Italy was his main centre of activity. Here and there, the very classically, transparently, and clearly written melodies allow room for improvised ornamentation – somewhat like in the late works of Tartini: nothing more than a Venetian gondolier would need to ornament one of his songs.

Cadences

Written by the soloist Leila Schayegh with Dominik Sackmann