Violin Concerto No. 2 (Shostakovich)

Template:Short description The Violin Concerto No. 2 in C-sharp minor, Op. 129, was Dmitri Shostakovich's last concerto. He wrote it in the spring of 1967 and intended it to serve as a 60th birthday present for its dedicatee, David Oistrakh, in September. However, Shostakovich had mistaken Oistrakh's age; he actually turned 59 that year.Template:Efn It was premiered unofficially in Bolshevo, near Moscow, on 13 September 1967, and officially on 26 September by Oistrakh and the Moscow Philharmonic under Kirill Kondrashin in Moscow.<ref name=BSO>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Scoring and structure

The concerto is scored for solo violin, piccolo, flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, timpani, tom-tom drum and strings.<ref name=BSO/>

A performance of the piece lasts approximately 33 minutes.<ref name=BSO/> It has three movements: Template:Ordered list

Analysis

The key of C-sharp minor is a difficult one for the violin.<ref name=BSO/>

The first movement is in sonata form<ref name=BSO/> and concludes with a contrapuntal cadenza. The Adagio is in three parts, with a central accompanied cadenza. The final movement is a complex rondo. It has a slow introduction, three episodes between the refrains, and a further long cadenza before the third episode reprising material from earlier in the work.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>