Violins of the LSO Violin Festival
A Digital Exhibition
by 
Historical context
Expert commentary
Rare images
Original recordings
Cozio’s digital exhibition explores the violins and soloists associated with the 12 concertos in the LSO International Violin Festival.
From the violins that first performed these works to those that feature in the festival, the list includes many famous names: the ‘Joachim’, ‘Marsick’ and ‘Vesuvius’ Stradivaris, the ‘Kreisler’ Guarneri ‘del Gesù’, and a rare c. 1775 Anselmo Bellosio.
Music critic Tully Potter provides historical background to the concertos and their first performances, while Jason Price gives expert analysis of selected violins, and festival soloists including Nicola Benedetti and Isabelle Faust
discuss their instruments and share personal perspectives on performing the concertos today.
The exhibition presents images of the violins and performers alongside excerpts from historic recordings of the concertos, including a classic David Oistrakh performance of the Shostakovich Concerto, Zoltán Székely performing the Bartók Concerto, and Antonio Brosa in a rare 1952 broadcast of the Britten Concerto.
Featured articles are published the day before each concert and you can sign up below to receive each one directly via email.
Exhibition runs: 7 April – 28 June 2015
Sibelius Violin Concerto
How could Sibelius’s Concerto, now so popular, have had such a crazy start in life? It was partly the composer’s fault. Jean Sibelius was already contemplating a concerto for the violin, his own instrument, when he went to Berlin in November 1902 to conduct his revised En Saga. He apparently met German violinist Willy Burmester, who had Finnish connections – he was married to pianist Naëma Fazer, sister of the music publisher Konrad Fazer, and had led the Helsinki orchestra. Burmester followed the concerto’s composition closely and offered to perform it in Berlin in March 1904; but Sibelius, short of money, decided to hold the premiere earlier, in Helsinki.
VIEW- Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1
- Britten Violin Concerto
- Bartók Violin Concerto No. 2
- Szymanowski Violin Concerto No. 1
- Brahms Violin Concerto
- Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
- Beethoven Violin Concerto
- Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
- Korngold Violin Concerto
- Previn Violin Concerto, ‘Anne-Sophie’
- Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3
- Sibelius Violin Concerto