Ray Chen joins the CSO in one of the Big 5: Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1

Violinists and writers sometimes speak of the “Big 5" violin concertos, a list that typically includes acclaimed works in the form by Beethoven, Brahms, Bruch, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky. The League of American Orchestras reports that two of these works, concertos by Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky, rank among the 25 most performed compositions by league members.

Virtuoso Ray Chen will join the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on Aug. 9 in one of the Big 5: Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 at Ravinia. Also on the program, conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya, in her Ravinia debut, are Wagner’s Overture to Tannhäuser and Debussy’s La mer.

This list of top concertos is not hard and fast. Some versions, for example, substitute Jean Sibelius’ Violin Concerto for Beethoven’s. Inexact or not, the “Big Five” is nonetheless a starting point in establishing the foundational concertos for the instrument, ones that virtually all major mainstream violinists perform regularly. There are, of course, many others that are frequently performed and admired.

In March 2021, for example, Gramophone magazine offered its picks for the 10 greatest violin concertos, which in addition to the traditional Big Five included the one by Sibelius, as well as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3, Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto, Béla Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1.

Chen performed Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 on his debut disc for Decca, “The Golden Age” (2018), with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Robert Trevino. The Decca album celebrates the “golden age” of the violin — not only in terms of repertoire, but also in performance style and ingenuity. 

In a promotional post for “The Golden Age,” Chen offered his own personal choices for the top five violin concertos. Leading his list was Elgar’s Violin Concerto in B Minor, as recorded in 1932 by Yehudi Menuhin, then just 16, and the London Symphony Orchestra. “This Elgar recording is very well known,” wrote Chen, "but actually it wasn’t that long ago that these treasured recordings were handed around between friends, who’d say: ’I have this amazing, beautiful recording that’s very difficult to find; here, I’ve made you a copy.’ This recording was always like that. Menuhin was only 16. You think about his age and what he could do, depth-wise, with the music — it’s astounding!"

Among the works that became popular in recent decades, at least in the United States, is Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, Op. 14. The American composer completed the work in 1940 and revised it eight years later, with the definitive version receiving is premiere in 1949 with violinist Ruth Posselt and the Boston Symphony.

Despite its initial success, the concerto fell into virtual obscurity. Its comeback got an important boost in 1994 with Gil Shaham’s fine recording with conductor André Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra. “I love that piece,” Shaham said. “People have called it the great American violin concerto.”

As some concertos gain in recognition, others drop out of favor. Shaham noted that Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole in D Minor, Op. 21 (1875), which, despite its title, is essentially a violin concerto, is played considerably less today than it once was. Shaham is not sure what the reasons are. “I always wonder,” he said. “Sometimes, it is very practical things like what fits for orchestras and conductors. Maybe there is this kind of cycle of fashion, that things ebb and flow and become more or less popular.”

Back to the Bruch, which often is referred to as just “The Bruch Violin Concerto”; it’s easy to forget that the composer actually wrote three (excluding the concerto-like Scottish Fantasy). The other two, though, have never equaled the No. 1 in the popularity stakes; Bruch clearly set the bar a little too high for himself with his stunning debut. Indeed, he remained frustrated about this for most of his life, feeling pigeonholed as something of a one-hit wonder, when he had, in fact, composed much more than this one piece alone.

This is a revised and updated excerpt of an article previously published on Sounds & Stories, the predecessor site of Experience CSO.