Instrumentation: 2222, / 2200 / 1 perc / pno / strings

 

Movements:

I.  Soulful, mysterious; Scherzando

II. With great energy

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Duration: 26 minutes

 

World Premiere:  This work was commissioned by a consortium of orchestras and their concertmasters as soloists; the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra with Steven Copes, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra with Margaret Batjer, and the Milwaukee Symphony with Frank Almond.

 

Program Notes:

My Violin Concerto is in two movements of contrasting character.  The first movement, marked “soulful and mysterious”, begins with a slow introduction and eventually transitions into a scherzando section. The very opening of the piece explores the violin’s lyrical and expressive qualities as it hovers above ethereal strings and percussion.  The middle section of the movement is a dynamic scherzo of sorts, almost becoming a separate movement in itself before the opening finally returns to conclude the movement. 

 

The second movement, marked “with great energy” moves freely back and forth between frenetic, pulse-oriented music and freely slow, non-pulsed music.  These slower sections contain lyrical quarter-tone pitch-bending in the violin, and this serves as the primary motivic material in this section.  Eventually, the fast music takes over and leads to a fiery cadenza.

 

-- Pierre Jalbert