Joachim: Violin Concerto No. 3 / Overtures, Opp. 4 And 13

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Joseph Joachim(1831-1907)Violin Concerto No.3in G major Overture 'Hamlet', Op. 4Overture 'In MemoriamHeinrich von Kleist', Op. 13The violinist Joseph Joachim has a secure place in the history of violinplaying and in the wider history of music, as a result of his close associationwith Brahms and his clear influence on the latter's writing for the violin andon his techniques of orchestration.Joachim was born in 1831 in Kittsee (now Kopsceny) near Pressburg, theold Hungarian Coronation town (the modern Bratislava), the seventh of eightchildren born to Jewish parents Julius and Fanny Joachim. With theencouragement of his parents, he started to learn the violin at the age offive, studying with Serwaeczyeski in Pest, to where the family had moved in1835. In 1839 Joseph played in public, with his teacher, the double concerto bythe Mannheim violinist Eck, and in the same year was sent to Vienna to studywith Miska Hauser. He later studied with Hauser's own teacher, GeorgHellmesberger, a leading figure in the Viennese school of violin playing in thenineteenth century. It was, however, from Joseph Bohm, a man who played forBeethoven and Schubert, that he was to learn the foundations of his techniqueand repertoire. A move to Leipzig, where Mendelssohn directed the GewandhausOrchestra, enabled him to study with Ferdinand David from 1843 and also tobenefit from the opportunity to work with Mendelssohn. In August 1843 Joachimplayed at a Gewandhaus concert in the distinguished company of Pauline Viardot(Turgenev's innamorata), Clara Schumann and Mendelssohn, performing a work byBeriot. In the same year he played Ernst's Othello-Phantasie at anotherconcert in the Leipzig series, and in 1844 made his first visit to England, acountry with which he established a connection that was to last until the endof his life.Joachim's career took him in 1849 to Weimar, as leader of the GrandDuke's orchestra. The position resulted in a close involvement with Liszt, whowas established in the Duchy as Director of Music Extraordinary. Three yearslater Joachim accepted the position of violinist to King George V of Hanover,and it was there, in 1853, that the violinist Remenyi, a school friend ofJoachim, introduced him to the young Brahms. It was to be through thisintroduction that Joachim was able to arrange for Brahms to be received byLiszt at Weimar, and late, by Schumann in D??sseldorf. His own friendship withBrahms was only later marred by disagreement, when Brahms sided with Joachim'sestranged wife, the soprano Amalie Weiss, in divorce proceedings instigated byJoachim.Joachim's association with Brahms and his sympathy with the classicismof Mendelssohn and Schumann led to the famous breach with Liszt and theso-called neo-German school, with its broader and less purely musicalambitions. As a player, indeed, he was the antithesis of the virtuoso Liszt,his performance studiously avoiding any suggestion of technical brilliance forits own sake. The Viennese critic Hanslick, writing