Phantasy for Violin with Piano Accompaniment, op. 47

In March 1949 Arnold Schönberg, who had emigrated to the USA in 1933, composed a piece for violin solo, accompanied by the piano at the behest of the violinist Adolph Koldofsky; at this time he was also composing the choral pieces Dreimal tausend Jahre and Israel Exists Again. The method of composition, which can be clearly determined from the manuscript sources, reveals that the soloistic nature of the violin part – both conceptually and as indicated in the title – should be taken at face value: Schönberg first wrote out the complete violin part (which he completed on 22 March 1949) before finishing the piano accompaniment a week later. For the first performance, in the context of his 75th birthday on 13 September 1949, Schönberg provided an alternative ending for Koldofsky, who performed the piece and whom the composer regarded as an ideal interpreter. The technical variety of the delicate soundscape ranges from double­stopping of extremely large intervals, glissandi, pizzicati and harmonics to complicated tremolo effects and dynamically differentiated chord arpeggios.