Classical Piece of the Week: Légende, op. 17

There are moments when you praise the Lord for inventing the violin. For inventing such a beautiful instrument that emits such a beautiful sound. The playing of Légende, op. 17 by Henryk Wieniawski is one of those moments.

But before I go any further into my analyzation of this piece, a little history: Henryk Wieniawski composed this piece in his early twenties in order to convince his fiancée's parents to give them their blessings for his engagement to Isabella Hampton . Before Wieniawski presented them this piece, they did not accept Henryk and Isabella's engagement, but after they heard this piece, they were so impressed by Wieniawski that the parents gave their blessings to their marriage.

This piece is played by the violin, with an orchestral accompaniment. The horns start with a low and almost wind-like melody, and then the main violin enters. The music is mellow and slow, with long crescendos and a beautiful showcase of vibrato. Then, the second part offers a more major-sounding melody, with a lot of intense double stopping. Then, the music intensifies, and little bits of the main melody comes back, until it is a repeat of part 1. The piece ends with some pretty amazing arpeggios which leads up to a high G, the final note.

Here are two versions of this piece: the first is with the orchestral accompaniment, and the second one is with a piano accompaniment. The first one is obviously more authentic, but I find that the violin sounds better in the second. So, what to you think? Which one of these two do you like the most?

Orchestral accompaniment

 

                                        Piano accompaniment