The Capriccio for Violin and Orchestra is a composition by Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki. It is one of the five caprices that he composed and one of the two that he composed for a soloist with an orchestra, together with the Capriccio for Oboe and Eleven Instruments.

Composition

This composition was finished in 1967 and was intended for performance in Donaueschingen, on October 22, 1967. On that occasion, Ernest Bour conducted the South West German Radio Orchestra, with Wanda Wilkomirska as the violin soloist. It was subsequently performed on the opening concert of the 1968 Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), which was held during the 12th Warsaw Autumn Festival. It was eventually dedicated to ISCM's then president, Heinrich Strobel, and published by the Polish Music Publishing House and Moeck Musikinstrumente + Verlag and, later on, by Schott Music.

Analysis

This unusual composition takes 10 minutes to perform. It is score for a very large and powerful set of instruments. The list of instruments used in this piece is as follows:

Woodwinds 4 flutes 4 oboes 3 clarinets in B baritone saxophone contrabass clarinet in B 3 bassoons contrabassoon

Brass 6 horns in F 4 trumpets in B 4 trombones tuba

Percussion musical saw vibraphone bells I bells II 4 timpani 2 bongos bass drum claves 5 wood blocks ratchet guiro whip 4 cowbells triangle 6 cymbals 2 gongs gong ageng 2 tam-tams

Other bass guitar harp harmonium piano

Strings

solo violin

24 violins 10 violas 10 cellos 8 double basses

The composition has no tempo marking at the beginning, even though the last bars are marked as Tempo di Valse. It is mentioned in the score that two or three of the bells from the second bell set should be made of 24-karat gold. Contrary to its concertante nature, the cadenza is fairly close to the beginning.

Notable recordings Following are some of the most well-known recordings of this piece:

ViolinOrchestraConductorRecord CompanyYear of RecordingFormatWanda WilkomirskaPolish Radio National Symphony OrchestraKrzysztof PendereckiEMI1972CDWanda WilkomirskaMDR Leipzig Radio Symphony OrchestraHerbert KegelBerlin Classics2003CDPatrycja PiekutowskaPolish Radio National Symphony OrchestraKrzysztof PendereckiDux Records2007CD

References

External links Live recording of the piece performed by Wanda Wilkomirska