INTRODUCTION To the 8 th Subscription Concert I Dr. P. Gradenwitz Ever since the inception of the" public״ concert - that came ■ existenSin the early days of the 18th century with the rise of the bourgeoisie and a new social order based on capitalism and enterprise - the programme culminated in the appearance of one or more soloists presenting compositions of a virtuoso character. &Music ceased to be a community possession and became an exhibit. The pleasure of listening could be bought for money (contrary to the preceding period in which music had been an integral part of social and communal life), and the astounding accomplishment of an individual had become the new.ideal in place of the former preference for a perfect performance by players all of whom were equally important. The rise of the modern virtuoso goes hand in hand with the development of the public concert and the improvement of communications in the 18th century helps to create 'the travelling virtuoso, conquering one town after the other and one country after the other by the power of his artistic genius, the extraordinary skill of his performance or the novelty of the music presented.. Production and execution were then combined in the hands of one artist; the 19th century only saw a still greater development towards individualism when one master •־specialised” in composing and left the task of performing to another specialist who, in turn, did not confine himself to a slavish reading of the printed score but revealed his own power of individual g interpretation״;־ and - what a typical word! - of “re-production”. The art of ״re-produemg” (that is, forming anew) a masterpiece of music, becomes no less an achievement than the composer’s production itself; and, on this occasion when we are lucky enough to hear one of the world’s greatest living performers playing two of the most famous and magnificent concertos ever written, it seems especially appropriate to trace thé . . n ■. • ......______ ״„J tko mneir rlActinp/1 fnr him origins of the virtuoso personality and of the music destined tor him. In ■our days, when a Huberman, a Casals, a Rubinstein appears on the concert platform, the seats are sold weeks in advance, and hundreds of enthusiasts can- not be accommodated. The work of concert managements, the press, the influence of international propaganda, and last but not least the grammophone record, film and radio pave the virtuoso's way and make his appearance in all parts of the globe financially possible while the artistic success, of course, depends on the spell of his performance. How different is this state of affairs from conditions one or two centuries ago ! The 18th century artist was not only composer and performer in one person but also his own agent and manager. Before he dared to appear in a recital he had to play in the prominent houses of the town visited, the success of the concert and the sale of tickets largely depending on the personal and artistic impression he made in these private circles. The concert societies could offer but little help, and a virtuoso without a keen commercial sense was inconceivable. Liszt-in the second half of the 19th , century— was an adored favourite of Courts and Princes, ■but as late as the 1820s and 80s the legendary Niccolo Paganini, first of all modern internationally famed violin virtuosos, sat at the box-office on the nights of his appearance, himself selling the tickets for a performance that was to rouse his audience to delight, passion, and frenzy. And only a century earlier the travelling virtuoso had been a sort of wayfarer touring the countries just as other travelling artisans, appearing here to-day and there to-morrow, playing to a courtly audience on one day, and in the inn on another, and again presenting his art in an opera house. Often these virtuosos were vagabonds and adventurers, a nuisance to every place they visited. The few great vocalists and instrumentalists had no chance to appear to the masses prior to the organisation of concerts in the towns, they were limited to their own place of office, the Court, the Opera, the Church, and only occasional journeys interrupted the routine of their work, composing and performing for their masters and patrons. With the virtuoso’s development from wayfarer or Court musician to the. com- poser-performer in the public concert, and again from an artist-businessman to the reproducing interpreter of specially written works, goes the development of concerted music itself. In the modern concerto we find the principles of structure of the old concerto combined with the spirit of-artistic display such as cultivated by the artisan- virtuoso. The basic idea of the Solo Concerto of the pre-symphonic age had been the same as in the Concerto Grosso (in which more than one soloist appeared): an alternation of two confronted groups, soloist and orchestra, each having an equal share in the musical development and each getting its turn of predominance. The rise of individualism however, that destroyed the principle of equal treatment of tunes m a score (polyphonic style) and of their players, and that helped to create a new style in which one dominant melody is accompanied by subordinate voices, did away also IV
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