rganization required
in first movements; yet frequent alternation is evidently necessary, as
the orchestral solo is audible only above a very subdued orchestral
accompaniment, and it would be highly inartistic to use the orchestra
for no other purpose. Hence in the classical concerto the ritornello is
never abandoned, in spite of the enormous dimensions to which the sonata
style expanded it. And though from the time of Mendelssohn onwards most
composers have seemed to regard it as a conventional impediment easily
abandoned, it may be doubted whether any modern concerto, except the
four magnificent examples of Brahms, and Dr Joachim's Hungarian
concerto, possesses first movements in which the orchestra seems to
enjoy breathing space. And certainly in the classical concerto the entry
of the solo instrument, after the long opening tutti, is always dramatic
in direct proportion to its delay. The great danger in handling so long
an orchestral prelude is that the work may for some minutes be
indistinguishable from a symphony and thus the entry of the solo may be
unexpected without being inevitable. This is especially the case if the
composer has treated his opening tutti like the exposition of a sonata
movement, and made a deliberate transition from his first group of
themes to a second group in a complementary key, even if the transition
is only temporary, as in Beethoven's C minor concerto. Mozart keeps his
whole tutti in the tonic, relieved only by his mastery of sudden
subsidiary modulation; and so perfect is his marshalling of his
resources that in his hands a tutti a hundred bars long passes by with
the effect of a splendid pageant, of which the meaning is evidently
about to be revealed by the solo. After the C minor concerto, Beethoven
grasped the true function of the opening tutti and enlarged it to his
new purposes. With an interesting experiment of Mozart's before him, he,
in his G major concerto, _Op. 53_, allowed the solo player to state the
opening theme, making the orchestra enter _pianissimo_ in a foreign key,
a wonderful incident which has led to the absurd statement that he
"abolished the opening tutti," and that Mendelssohn in so doing has
"followed his example." In this concerto he also gave considerable
variety of key to the opening tutti by the use of an important theme
which executes a considerable series of modulations, an entirely
different thing from a deliberate modulation from material in one key to