Pelléas et Mélisande, orchestral suite, Violin Concerto (Finnish premiere of the revised version) (cond. Kajanus)

Before its Finnish premiere in Helsinki, the incidental music to Pelléas et Mélisande had, according to Otto Kotilainen in Helsingin Sanomat, “already passed triumphantly through many European cities, arousing great admiration wherever it went”. The revised version of the violin concerto was heard for the first time in Finland at the same concert, with German Hermann Grevesmühl as the soloist. The concerto was, according to Kotilainen, “magnificent”, like “a symphony charged with some powerful, serious programme in which the violin has a terribly great assignment”.

Text: Timo Virtanen
Picture: The National Library of Finland