Title: Violin Concerto
Artiste: Alban Berg
Genre: Classical
Familiarity: Zero
Recommended by: Deadchannel
Expectations: Again, it's classical, it's violins. I expect to like it. I may even be moved by it.
1.1st Movement: Andante (Prelude): Well this is a beautiful start, soft, gentle, mournful, very fragile. Getting stronger now, more insistent, sharper. Settling down then to a sort of swaying rhythm but building, falling back, building, falling back, rather like waves or winds.
2. 1st Movement: Allegretto (Scherzo): Not sure if this is where the break is, but anyway. Sounds like bassoons or something joining in and it gets more solid, gaining a strength perhaps from the additional instruments, turning a little darker maybe?
3. 2nd Movement: Allegro (Candenza): Much louder, ominous even. I read that the first movement is meant to signify life, and the second death and a possible transition to an afterlife. You can hear that in the quicker, more urgent, almost panicky violins here as well as the rest of the orchestra coming in (don't ask me what instruments as I am not up on my orchestral knowledge but I'd say bassoons, oboes, trombones, that kind of thing) to add darkness to the overall atmosphere. It's the longer of the two movements, at just over seventeen minutes, but this time I think I should be able to pinpoint the change, as the last part seems to involve a choir. Getting pretty frenetic now (anyone who doubts metal grew from classical needs to hear some of the heavier passages on this!) with a kind of war going on between the violins and the percussion.
4. 2nd Movement: Adagio (Chorale Variations): Into the eleventh minute now and everything is slowing down, winding down, dying perhaps? Certainly has the feeling of an old melodramatic movie ending. Well that was odd. Said chorale variations, but no voices? Maybe it means something else.
End result: Like most classical, enjoyable, moving, at times the slightest little bit shocking, and almost beyond mere praise. I mean, how could you not like this and still claim to have a soul?
So, Love or Hate? Love, quite obviously.