Violin Concerto: II. Sehr ruhig

Klenau's Violin Concerto is Classical in its formal structure, with three movements, and in its orchestration, with strings, woodwind, horns, drums, and cymbals. Even though the concerto is, according to Klenau’s own classification, a twelve-tone work, its musical expression is more late Romantic in style, comparable to works by Richard Strauss and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, built on a tonal foundation. The story-telling atmosphere is present in the slow second movement, in which the solo violin seems to have its own life and floats above the waters. It unfolds in a twelve-tone universe with which the orchestra discreetly resonate.