ABSTRACT
The violins take a little convincing and seem to doubt the wisdom of the move, but the soloist endorses it with a delightful restatement of the theme in the new key. A rushing scale from the violinist ushers in the third variation in which the mood changes markedly, though not the material. The violinist seems inspired by the phrase, tosses it into a higher register, and uses it too as a basis for some increasingly athletic passages. The persistent hunting-horn motif may conjure up an image of horses and riders in our minds but the virtuosity demanded by the violin part soon brings us back to more purely musical matters. For a time the violinist is wholly preoccupied with dazzingly brilliant semiquavers, disregarding the tentative suggestions of the rondo-theme which come with increasing emphasis from the string section.
