Regarding the date of composition of Viotti's Concerto no.22, there is no unanimous agreement: some scholars like White place it between the years 1793 and 1797. Nonetheless, some records show that the Concerto premiered in the Hanover Square Rooms concert series, conducted by orchestral director and impresario Johann Peter Solomon. Since this concert series was only active until 1793, I think that it is more possible to consider it to be earlier, which, on the other hand, would also coincide with the time when Libón was under his tutelage.
The Concerto is dedicated to his colleague Luigi Cherubini, and the orchestration is comprised of 1 flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings.
Heroic codes were traditionally applied to first movements, though finales occasionally recalled the military motifs of the opening movements by using similar instrumentation (trumpets and drums), as is the case of this concerto. The lyrical second movements served as a contrast, utilising a whole different set of elements within the cultural context (for instance, codes of vocality, and femininity). The Polonaise, a popular third movement, made it simple to incorporate military fanfares and gestures. Nevertheless, what we now think of as the unity of works was not frequently experienced in an era when the three movements of a concerto were not always performed sequentially. Indeed, the substitution of one slow movement for another was common practice in their performance culture, suggesting that each movement may be treated, to a certain extent, separately.
Harmonically, this Concerto might not seem to be very adventurous: the key is in A minor, and the development is in E Major, the dominant key, and then it goes straight back to the Tonic without any detour. However, the concerto holds the listener's interest until the very end, not only because of the technical and virtuosic flamboyance but because the thematic material is re-orchestrated and presented in surprising ways each time.
One of the characteristics of Viotti's concertos was the imaginative orchestration which used the colour of the wind section in an innovative way, treating them as independent from the strings. Thus, both in the exposition of theme A and theme B, Viotti masterfully utilises the colours provided by the different sections in the orchestra: he distributes the thematic material between different groups of instruments responding to each other, and then after he teams them up, incrementing the tension, and building up a fiery Tutti explosion before the Solo entrance.
Typically in the Solo sections, the accompaniment would be lightened at first, in a very operatic style, with only the strings providing a cushion over which the violin sings its ornate melodies. Later, to link them with the Tutti section, the winds are usually added in response, adding different elements to the texture. Now, turning to the violin entry, where military-style characteristics are combined with all the expected virtuoso techniques, often the violin would take up martial themes from the opening tutti and give them a virtuoso spin by introducing higher registers and ornaments.
Relating the way in which the first thema A is stated by the solo Violin (as opposed to the way presented for the first time with the orchestra, see Example 1), with a quote of Pierrre Baillot of 1835 that the timbre of the violin could assume “the warlike brilliance of the trumpet.”
This Concerto is, as it could not be otherwise, a showcase of technical skills: trills, string crossings, double-stops in sixths and thirds. The variations in bow patterns in the passagework (typical of Viotti) are remarkable.
In this particular concerto, the importance of the cantabile B theme (originally introduced in maggiore) is worthy to note. The general form of the Concerto is close to a Sonata form, but these cantabile episodes that come after the virtuosic outbursts of the solo violin for closing the section give a rhapsodic feel to the concerto, in which no part is repeated in a literal manner, even in the reprise. In the first exposition of this singing theme, Viotti creates warm and special sonorities resulting from an unusual combination of instruments ( flute, bassoon, and violins).
These are an important structural parts, typically sul g, or sul d, (although also it appears later in the higher register) is significant.
Returning to the subject of the heroic gestures that can be found in this concerti, nowhere did the violinist appear more heroic than when confronted with the colossal forces of the orchestra. The drama of a concerto is based on this fundamental principle of inequality; as critic Fétis observed, when a pianist replaced the powerful orchestra, the effect of a Violin concerto was completely undermined and ruined. Putting passages of extreme virtuosity next to grandiose martial tuttis had, indeed, a very strong rhetorical effect1.
Now, in a French “military” concerto, the simultaneity of the solo’s closure and the martial tutti might well have combined to suggest a triumphant arrival. The place where we can see this kind of rhetoric best exemplified would be in the tutti that follows the solo violin cadenza, inviting listeners to hear the orchestra’s subsequent music as a kind of victory march for the soloist, who has only just labored through a virtuoso journey to arrive at a hero’s welcome.
