Violin Concerto

From the second half of the 1960s Zsolt Durkó (1934–1997) was considered abroad to be the most often performed contemporary Hungarian composer. He sought to meld universal and Hungarian values in his music, an effort reflected, among other works of his, by his four-movement Violin Concerto (1933), which betrays an influence of Bartók, Berg and Webern. Durkó composed the work in Budapest and Velem, a village that provided idyllic circumstances for work. It received its world première at the Music Academy in the autumn of 1993, with Ferenc Szecsődi playing solo, to whom the work is dedicated. Although it is Durkó’s fourth work for solo violin and orchestra, it is the only one designated as a concerto in the title. Each of the movements are a different musical world. The opening Allegretto develops from a tiny musical germ; the more energetic second movement allows for the development of a prolonged dramatic fabric; the third would be unimaginable without the backdrop of Bartókian “night slow movements”; and the finale is the richest in character.