Concertante Works Since 1972
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Here's a sort of cello concerto from way back -- 1974 -- which I've been enjoying. By Sciarrino.
Salvatore Sciarrino - Variazioni (1/2) - YouTube
Interesting how his music today compares -- some of the ideas he uses nowadays are similar I'd say -- 50 years later!
Salvatore Sciarrino - Variazioni (1/2) - YouTube
Interesting how his music today compares -- some of the ideas he uses nowadays are similar I'd say -- 50 years later!
And here's a rarity, Feldman's rarely performed Viola in my Life 4, for viola and orchestra. I'm not sure of the date. I like it a lot, much more than the easily available commercial performance on ECM.
The Viola in My Life 4 - Morton Feldman - YouTube
The Viola in My Life 4 - Morton Feldman - YouTube
Eivind Buene's Violin Concerto(about 2010?) consists of three movements (Falling Angels, Sound Asleep, Among Voices of the Dead) that can also be played separately. This is unlike any other violin concerto I've heard - I don't think it's a real masterpiece, but it is definitely worth hearing.
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Another good concerto by Anna Clyne:
Anna Clyne : DANCE - I. when you’re broken open
concerto for cello and orchestra
Programme Note
DANCE is dedicated with much love to my father, Leslie Clyne.
Dance, when you're broken open.
Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you're perfectly free.
— Rumi
The work is in five movements according to the five lines of the poem.
I when you're broken open
II if you've torn the bandage off
III in the middle of the fighting
IV in your blood
V when you're perfectly free
“I’m struggling to remember the last time a piece of contemporary music made me cry. ... in the final movement of Anna Clyne’s DANCE, a cello concerto in all but name, a bear-hug of a theme emerges through angry, percussive col legno snaps that is so beautiful, so heartfelt that it instantly drew tears on first hearing. Repeated listening had a similar effect.” — Gramophone
Anna Clyne : DANCE - I. when you’re broken open
concerto for cello and orchestra
Programme Note
DANCE is dedicated with much love to my father, Leslie Clyne.
Dance, when you're broken open.
Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you're perfectly free.
— Rumi
The work is in five movements according to the five lines of the poem.
I when you're broken open
II if you've torn the bandage off
III in the middle of the fighting
IV in your blood
V when you're perfectly free
“I’m struggling to remember the last time a piece of contemporary music made me cry. ... in the final movement of Anna Clyne’s DANCE, a cello concerto in all but name, a bear-hug of a theme emerges through angry, percussive col legno snaps that is so beautiful, so heartfelt that it instantly drew tears on first hearing. Repeated listening had a similar effect.” — Gramophone
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Gubaidulina: Offertorium - Concerto For Violin And Orchestra
Gidon Kremer · Boston Symphony Orchestra · Charles Dutoit
Like many of her other pieces, Offertorium contains religious elements. Even the name is a reference to that section of a Mass (performed immediately after the Credo) that is sung while the priest is offering up the prepared bread and wine. The work takes as its overarching theme the concepts of sacrifice and offering: the sacrifice of Christ during the Crucifixion, God’s offering in creating the Earth, the sacrifice of the performer to the tone, the sacrifice of the composer to the art, and the sacrifice of the main musical theme to disintegration and, later, reconstruction.
The work is centered on the musical theme given by Frederick the Great to Johann Sebastian Bach which formed the basis of his Musikalisches Opfer (BWV 1079). The introduction presents the theme almost whole: it lacks only the last note. The soloist then enters, beginning a series of variations, each of which removes one note from the beginning and end of the theme. (After the third variation, the original theme is hard to make out.) After the theme's demise the central section is a free rhapsody.[citation needed]
The final section is a slow string chorale that resembles a Russian Orthodox hymn. Beneath this, the harps and piano reconstruct the theme note by note, in reverse (retrograde), a process that concludes only at the very end with a complete statement from the solo violin. In uniting her twin inspirations, Webern and Bach, and in the deep Christian symbolism of the theme's "death" and "resurrection", Offertorium is a work representative of Gubaidulina's mature period. (source)
Gidon Kremer · Boston Symphony Orchestra · Charles Dutoit
Like many of her other pieces, Offertorium contains religious elements. Even the name is a reference to that section of a Mass (performed immediately after the Credo) that is sung while the priest is offering up the prepared bread and wine. The work takes as its overarching theme the concepts of sacrifice and offering: the sacrifice of Christ during the Crucifixion, God’s offering in creating the Earth, the sacrifice of the performer to the tone, the sacrifice of the composer to the art, and the sacrifice of the main musical theme to disintegration and, later, reconstruction.
The work is centered on the musical theme given by Frederick the Great to Johann Sebastian Bach which formed the basis of his Musikalisches Opfer (BWV 1079). The introduction presents the theme almost whole: it lacks only the last note. The soloist then enters, beginning a series of variations, each of which removes one note from the beginning and end of the theme. (After the third variation, the original theme is hard to make out.) After the theme's demise the central section is a free rhapsody.[citation needed]
The final section is a slow string chorale that resembles a Russian Orthodox hymn. Beneath this, the harps and piano reconstruct the theme note by note, in reverse (retrograde), a process that concludes only at the very end with a complete statement from the solo violin. In uniting her twin inspirations, Webern and Bach, and in the deep Christian symbolism of the theme's "death" and "resurrection", Offertorium is a work representative of Gubaidulina's mature period. (source)
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Rolf Wallin : Whirld
concerto for violin and large orchestra (2018)
Alina Ibragimova, violin
Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester
Edward Gardner, conductor
World Première, 21 August 2018, BBC Proms '18
Program Note:
The world is a whirl, and every whirl is a world, we have been told for thousands of years by ecstatic mystics. And in the last century, our sober scientists have confirmed that it is a fact.
In this violin concerto I have returned to the puzzling and mystifying ‘whirld’ of fractal mathematics, where the straight rules of numbers open up into the realm of swirling clouds, meandering rivers and mesmerising bird flocks. When these so-called chaotic mathematical patterns are projected onto music, strange melodies come to life; like plants, like animals that move in fascinating, unpredictable ways. The dry numbers give birth to surprisingly emotional melodies – yearning, serene, strident, jubilant.
In the process of making a violin concerto out of these melodies I have felt like the old alchemists, who brought the chaotic massa confuse through a process of dissolving and coagulating, evaporating and solidifying, in order to bring forth the magical Philosophers' Stone, to make precious metals, to heal illnesses, or to make life out of dead matter. And more important for many of them, as a process of personal spiritual healing and transcendence.
concerto for violin and large orchestra (2018)
Alina Ibragimova, violin
Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester
Edward Gardner, conductor
World Première, 21 August 2018, BBC Proms '18
Program Note:
The world is a whirl, and every whirl is a world, we have been told for thousands of years by ecstatic mystics. And in the last century, our sober scientists have confirmed that it is a fact.
In this violin concerto I have returned to the puzzling and mystifying ‘whirld’ of fractal mathematics, where the straight rules of numbers open up into the realm of swirling clouds, meandering rivers and mesmerising bird flocks. When these so-called chaotic mathematical patterns are projected onto music, strange melodies come to life; like plants, like animals that move in fascinating, unpredictable ways. The dry numbers give birth to surprisingly emotional melodies – yearning, serene, strident, jubilant.
In the process of making a violin concerto out of these melodies I have felt like the old alchemists, who brought the chaotic massa confuse through a process of dissolving and coagulating, evaporating and solidifying, in order to bring forth the magical Philosophers' Stone, to make precious metals, to heal illnesses, or to make life out of dead matter. And more important for many of them, as a process of personal spiritual healing and transcendence.
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Widmann : Viola Concerto
Teodor Currentzis ∙ Antoine Tamestit | SWR Symphonieorchester
This is a wonderfully rich and rewarding concerto, packed with inventive orchestral detail. Widmann seems to move between different worlds in the five interlinked movements, and the slower passages yield particularly haunting music. In the mystical Sehr langsam, for instance, Tamestit makes the viola sing like a lost soul. And the effect of take-off in the Toccata, leading us into a free-floating, deep-space soundscape in the Aria is superb. (source)
Teodor Currentzis ∙ Antoine Tamestit | SWR Symphonieorchester
This is a wonderfully rich and rewarding concerto, packed with inventive orchestral detail. Widmann seems to move between different worlds in the five interlinked movements, and the slower passages yield particularly haunting music. In the mystical Sehr langsam, for instance, Tamestit makes the viola sing like a lost soul. And the effect of take-off in the Toccata, leading us into a free-floating, deep-space soundscape in the Aria is superb. (source)
Here are a few 21st c. ones:
- Sir Harrison Birtwistle - VC
- Friedrich Cerha - VC
- Unsuk Chin - VC1*, Scherben der Stille
- Brett Dean - The Lost Art of Letter Writing
- Péter Eötvös - Seven, DoReMi*, Alhambra
- Sofia Gubaidulina - In Tempus Praesens*, Dialog: Ich und Du
- Oliver Knussen - VC
- Magnus Lindberg - VC1*, VC2
- Shulamit Ran - VC
- Esa-Pekka Salonen - VC
- Jörg Widmann - VC1
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Isabel Mundry: Noli me tangere (2019/20)
Samuel Favre, percussion
Ensemble intercontemporain
Pierre Bleuse, conductor
World Première, 16 Feburary 2020, Festival Présences '20
Program note
My composition refers to a book of the same name by the French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, which in turn refers to a corresponding passage from the Gospel of John. Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb of the deceased Jesus, but finds it empty. Then she turns around, sees him, but does not recognize him. Then he pronounces her name, she replicates with his, and he says: Don't touch me (Mè mou haptou – Noli me tangere), I'm still leaving, but tell the others what you saw.
My composition, like Nancy's text, is less about religion and more about a meditation on the phenomenon of touch, which only manifests itself when it is not equated with grasping, grasping, or holding. It is a touch that is only released through non-touch and is therefore potentially infinite.
This figure plays through the relationship between the solo percussion and the ensemble in multiple phrases. Everything is reaction to each other, but hardly synchronization. It is always about forms of resonance, but never about alignment. Technically, these are almost entirely mirror canons, mostly proportionally distorted. But a mirror relationship between an ensemble and a solo percussion, which mostly acts without pitch, is basically absurd, it leaves an empty space. This piece is about him. The ensemble and the percussion leave an imprint or a trace in each other without assimilating one another. In other passages, some of the musicians turn away from the conductor and look in the opposite direction. The measure of time determines your ear here. Touching takes place in hearing.
Samuel Favre, percussion
Ensemble intercontemporain
Pierre Bleuse, conductor
World Première, 16 Feburary 2020, Festival Présences '20
Program note
My composition refers to a book of the same name by the French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, which in turn refers to a corresponding passage from the Gospel of John. Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb of the deceased Jesus, but finds it empty. Then she turns around, sees him, but does not recognize him. Then he pronounces her name, she replicates with his, and he says: Don't touch me (Mè mou haptou – Noli me tangere), I'm still leaving, but tell the others what you saw.
My composition, like Nancy's text, is less about religion and more about a meditation on the phenomenon of touch, which only manifests itself when it is not equated with grasping, grasping, or holding. It is a touch that is only released through non-touch and is therefore potentially infinite.
This figure plays through the relationship between the solo percussion and the ensemble in multiple phrases. Everything is reaction to each other, but hardly synchronization. It is always about forms of resonance, but never about alignment. Technically, these are almost entirely mirror canons, mostly proportionally distorted. But a mirror relationship between an ensemble and a solo percussion, which mostly acts without pitch, is basically absurd, it leaves an empty space. This piece is about him. The ensemble and the percussion leave an imprint or a trace in each other without assimilating one another. In other passages, some of the musicians turn away from the conductor and look in the opposite direction. The measure of time determines your ear here. Touching takes place in hearing.
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The amount of good stuff is overwhelming, How did I not know about Édith Canat de Chizy??
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Nicole Lizée (1973)
Blurr is the Colour of My True Love's Eyes (2022)
concerto for percussion and orchestra
Nicole Lizée studied musical composition at McGill University in Montreal with Denys Bouliane and John Rea. She obtained a Master's degree in 2001.
Fascinated by obsolete technologies (period 1960-1980), Nicole Lizée explores dysfunction, the revival of the obsolete, and the exploitation of imperfection and glitch (artifact) to, she says, "go under the surface things, and create other universes". As such, she includes in her compositions an unorthodox instrumentarium, notably Atari 2600 video game consoles, omnichords, stylophones, Simon™ games, or karaoke tapes.
Rich in a vast musical palette, ranging from metal to contemporary music via krautrock, Nicole Lizée is deeply marked by DJ culture. A turntable herself, Lizée integrates DJ techniques into her compositions through precise notation, as in This Will Not Be Televised, for chamber ensemble and turntable, one of her flagship works, ranked among the 10 selected works. at the 2008 edition of the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers.
Blurr is the Colour of My True Love's Eyes (2022)
concerto for percussion and orchestra
Nicole Lizée studied musical composition at McGill University in Montreal with Denys Bouliane and John Rea. She obtained a Master's degree in 2001.
Fascinated by obsolete technologies (period 1960-1980), Nicole Lizée explores dysfunction, the revival of the obsolete, and the exploitation of imperfection and glitch (artifact) to, she says, "go under the surface things, and create other universes". As such, she includes in her compositions an unorthodox instrumentarium, notably Atari 2600 video game consoles, omnichords, stylophones, Simon™ games, or karaoke tapes.
Rich in a vast musical palette, ranging from metal to contemporary music via krautrock, Nicole Lizée is deeply marked by DJ culture. A turntable herself, Lizée integrates DJ techniques into her compositions through precise notation, as in This Will Not Be Televised, for chamber ensemble and turntable, one of her flagship works, ranked among the 10 selected works. at the 2008 edition of the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers.
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Helen Grime: Violin Concerto (2015/16)
Malin Broman, violin
Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester
Daniel Harding, conductor
World Première, 15 December 2016, Berwaldhallen
Composer's note
My Violin Concerto came about after several collaborations with Malin Broman and many years of gestation. We first worked together with Malin’s piano trio (Kungsbacka Trio) but I also had chance to work with the orchestra, conducted by Daniel Harding with Malin leading, in 2010. I was immediately struck by the ferocity, power and passion in her playing. At turns she is able to play with a sort of wild abandon but also with great tenderness, sensitivity and with many different colours. I knew when we started talking about the piece some years back, that I wanted to highlight and showcase these striking, opposing qualities. Violent, virtuosic music covering the whole range of the violin is contrasted with more delicate and reflective filigree material that features oscillating natural harmonic passages and searching melodies.
Towards the beginning of the writing process, I sent Malin various fragments of material and many of these are used in the concerto. These initial sketches actually became the basis for the piece’s central section and everything else sprung from this. In one continuous movement, the piece falls into three main sections but features extensive dreamlike interlinking passages that connect them.
Helen Grime
The music of Helen Grime has been performed by leading orchestras around the world, among them the London Symphony Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductors who have championed her music include Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Mark Elder, Pierre Boulez, Kent Nagano, Oliver Knussen, George Benjamin, Daniel Harding, Marin Alsop and Thomas Dausgaard. Her music frequently draws inspiration from related artforms such as painting (Two Eardley Pictures, Three Whistler Miniatures), sculpture (Woven Space) and literature (A Cold Spring, Near Midnight, Limina) and has won praise in equal measure for the craftsmanship of its construction and the urgency of its telling.
Born in 1981, Helen Grime attended St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh and studied at the Royal College of Music with Julian Anderson and Edwin Roxburgh (composition) and John Anderson (oboe). She came to public attention in 2003, when her Oboe Concerto won a British Composer Award. In 2008 she was awarded a Leonard Bernstein Fellowship to attend the Tanglewood Music Center where she studied with John Harbison, Michael Gandolfi, Shulamit Ran and Augusta Read Thomas. Grime was a Legal and General Junior Fellow at the Royal College of Music from 2007 to 2009. Between 2011 and 2015 she was Associate Composer to the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester and in 2016 was appointed Composer in Residence at Wigmore Hall in London. She was Lecturer in Composition at Royal Holloway, University of London, between 2010 and 2017 and is currently Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She was appointed MBE in the 2020 New Year Honours List for services to music.
Malin Broman, violin
Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester
Daniel Harding, conductor
World Première, 15 December 2016, Berwaldhallen
Composer's note
My Violin Concerto came about after several collaborations with Malin Broman and many years of gestation. We first worked together with Malin’s piano trio (Kungsbacka Trio) but I also had chance to work with the orchestra, conducted by Daniel Harding with Malin leading, in 2010. I was immediately struck by the ferocity, power and passion in her playing. At turns she is able to play with a sort of wild abandon but also with great tenderness, sensitivity and with many different colours. I knew when we started talking about the piece some years back, that I wanted to highlight and showcase these striking, opposing qualities. Violent, virtuosic music covering the whole range of the violin is contrasted with more delicate and reflective filigree material that features oscillating natural harmonic passages and searching melodies.
Towards the beginning of the writing process, I sent Malin various fragments of material and many of these are used in the concerto. These initial sketches actually became the basis for the piece’s central section and everything else sprung from this. In one continuous movement, the piece falls into three main sections but features extensive dreamlike interlinking passages that connect them.
Helen Grime
The music of Helen Grime has been performed by leading orchestras around the world, among them the London Symphony Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductors who have championed her music include Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Mark Elder, Pierre Boulez, Kent Nagano, Oliver Knussen, George Benjamin, Daniel Harding, Marin Alsop and Thomas Dausgaard. Her music frequently draws inspiration from related artforms such as painting (Two Eardley Pictures, Three Whistler Miniatures), sculpture (Woven Space) and literature (A Cold Spring, Near Midnight, Limina) and has won praise in equal measure for the craftsmanship of its construction and the urgency of its telling.
Born in 1981, Helen Grime attended St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh and studied at the Royal College of Music with Julian Anderson and Edwin Roxburgh (composition) and John Anderson (oboe). She came to public attention in 2003, when her Oboe Concerto won a British Composer Award. In 2008 she was awarded a Leonard Bernstein Fellowship to attend the Tanglewood Music Center where she studied with John Harbison, Michael Gandolfi, Shulamit Ran and Augusta Read Thomas. Grime was a Legal and General Junior Fellow at the Royal College of Music from 2007 to 2009. Between 2011 and 2015 she was Associate Composer to the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester and in 2016 was appointed Composer in Residence at Wigmore Hall in London. She was Lecturer in Composition at Royal Holloway, University of London, between 2010 and 2017 and is currently Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She was appointed MBE in the 2020 New Year Honours List for services to music.
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Thanks.
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Mark Simpson (*1988)
Violin Concerto, for violin and orchestra (2020/21)
00:00 I. Lamentoso
06:20 II. Dance
13:57 III. Andante Amoroso
26:37 IV. Cadenza
30:41 V. Presto con fuoco — Finale
Liza Ferschtman, violin
Radio Filharmonisch Orkest
Markus Stenz, conductor
Dutch Première, 11 March 2023, Concertgebouw
Violin Concerto, for violin and orchestra (2020/21)
00:00 I. Lamentoso
06:20 II. Dance
13:57 III. Andante Amoroso
26:37 IV. Cadenza
30:41 V. Presto con fuoco — Finale
Liza Ferschtman, violin
Radio Filharmonisch Orkest
Markus Stenz, conductor
Dutch Première, 11 March 2023, Concertgebouw
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I am exploring and enjoying a lot of Marco Stroppa's music at the moment. This is the 2nd movement of a six movement (all quite short) piece called Let me sing in your ear.
It comes from this album (which has lots to recommend in it):
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The piece is played by Michele Marelli with the Radio Kamer Filharmonie conducted by Peter Eötvös.
It comes from this album (which has lots to recommend in it):
The piece is played by Michele Marelli with the Radio Kamer Filharmonie conducted by Peter Eötvös.
41 - 60 of 65 Posts
