German composers Kurt Weill (1900 - 1950) and Ernst Krenek (1900 - 1991) were pursuing similar paths by the end of 1924. Both were writing highly innovative violin concertos. That they were even thinking somewhat along the same lines is evident from the opening of Krenek's concerto.

The first movement, which is in a variety of tempi beginning with a Presto, starts with a long passage for violin solo with only winds in accompaniment. At the same time, Weill was writing a concerto with a wind band only, as accompaniment. In Weill's case, this new sonority was the most distinguishing mark of the concerto. For Krenek, the idea was to alienate the sound of the violin from the orchestra, and also to prepare for a dramatic moment in which the low strings suddenly enter, transforming the character of the music from "feminine" to "masculine." The movement is a concise drama with moments of increasing tension and reconciliation between these two moods.

Late in his life the composer Berthold Goldschmidt recalled the premiere of the concerto, which was played by Alma Moodie, a violinist so beautiful that her appearance on stage drew gasps. He interpreted the whole concerto as a kind of portrait of developing domestic incompatibility (assuming the domestic situation involved was that of the composer and Miss Moodie). Goldschmidt found the sound of the Adagio middle movement to convey a clear picture of a night train right in a sleeping compartment, with the violin and instruments of the orchestra carrying on a serious discussion, which he thinks had to do with both determined to go their own ways in their professional careers and the passionate conclusion to represent the actual separation.

The factual basis of Goldschmidt's interpretation may or may not be correct. Krenek was wooing Anna Mahler, daughter of the composer Gustav Mahler, and married her in March 1924, the time he was writing the concerto. Alma Moodie had helped the young composer get financial assistance from a Swiss patron, an important source of stable currency for Krenek during the ruinous German hyper-inflation. The grateful composer dedicated the concerto and also wrote a Violin Sonata, Op. 33, to Moodie in 1924.

Moodie premiered the concerto in a concert in Dessau, Germany, on January 5, 1925. Goldschmidt, a former classmate of Krenek's, had expected to see the composer at the concert. On mentioning this while congratulating Moodie on the performance, the violinist looked away in clear anger and said, "He only sent me a telegram!" What they both apparently didn't know was that Krenek's divorce from Anna was then within a few days of being final.

Furthermore, Krenek now regarded his style in the concerto as having been outdated, and he did not promote any further hearings of it. Goldschmidt did not hear the concerto again after 1924 until it was being given a London recording in 1995. The domestic program that Goldschmidt imagined 70 years after his first hearing might well be applicable, only with a different lady in the leading role.

© Joseph Stevenson, Rovi