Violin Concerto premiere for new sigining Martin Suckling
Faber Music’s latest signing, Martin Suckling, is not only a prodigious composer, but a talented violinist too, and next week sees the premiere of his first concerto for his own instrument.
As Martin writes: ‘I'm a violinist, writing a violin concerto. The music comes from my fingers.’ The new concerto, de sol y grana, was commissioned by London Music Masters and will be premiered by Polish violinist Agata Szymczewska and the London Contemporary Orchestra on Monday 12 December as part of the Spitalfields Music Winter Festival. It will be followed by a second performance with Agata Szymczewska and Southbank Sinfonia on Thursday 24 May 2012 at St John’s, Waterloo.
As Martin writes: ‘I'm a violinist, writing a violin concerto. The music comes from my fingers.’ The new concerto, de sol y grana, was commissioned by London Music Masters and will be premiered by Polish violinist Agata Szymczewska and the London Contemporary Orchestra on Monday 12 December as part of the Spitalfields Music Winter Festival. It will be followed by a second performance with Agata Szymczewska and Southbank Sinfonia on Thursday 24 May 2012 at St John’s, Waterloo.
Following in the steps of Martin’s other major premieres this year (Candlebird with the London Sinfonietta and storm, rose, tiger with the Scottish Chamber orchestra), de sol y grana uses dazzling harmonics and microtones to evoke the ‘sunlight’ and ‘scarlet’ of the title:
‘The title is a line from a poem by Antonio Machado, and roughly translates as "of sun(light) and scarlet". In this poem he likens his songs to bubbles, and describes his delight at watching them set off, float in the air, glimmer (with sunlight and scarlet), and then burst. The nine short sections of this violin concerto are little bubbles of music in which the violin and ensemble come into a particular relationship and hover there for a few moments before disintegrating into something new. Each 'bubble' behaves quite differently: some hang in the air relatively serenely while others are considerably more volatile and unpredictable.’
(Martin Suckling)
Prior to the premiere, Martin Suckling has been involved in a series of composition workshops as part of the LMM Bridge Project, a music education initiative in primary schools in South London. A video of the extraordinary results is available to watch here.