Rare French works for violin and orchestra (2002)

The Violin Concerto was composed in 1878-79 for Faurés friend Ovide Musin (1854-1929), a leading figure of the Franco-Flemish school of violin playing (alongside Ysaÿe). At first he failed to complete it, leaving the sketches of the finale unfinished. The second movement, Andante, seems to have originated first, and was premièred in a piano version by Musin and André Messager (1853-1929) at the Société National de Musique, Paris, on 28 December 1878. The first two movements (Allegro and Andante), now complete, were premièred at the same location by Musin under the baton of Édouard Colonne on 12 April 1880. This performance, too, was not particularly successful: only the Berceuse (op. 16), which Fauré wrote for violin and piano at the same time, independently of the op. 14 concerto, was widely acclaimed and published by Hamelle in 1880. (...)