Instrumentation

2 hns - strings

Availability

Score 0-571-51100-7 on sale, parts for hire

Programme Notes

Nicholas Maw Little Concert For oboe accompanied by strings and two horns This work, a kind of concert aria (konzertstück might be a better description) for oboe, was completed in 1988. It was written to celebrate the twenty first anniversary of the Orchestra of St. John’s, and as a tribute to the playing of Melinda Maxwell. The musical language employed represents an intermittent preoccupation of mine to write a piece somewhat light in ‘specific gravity’ and tone, but that does not really fall into the category of light music. Previous works of mine in this genre include the Serenade for small orchestra of 1977 and the orchestral piece Spring Music of 1982, as well as much of the music in my two operas, One-Man Show (1964) and The Rising of the Moon (1970). A common characteristic of all these works is a concentration on line – the presentation and development of melody, the acceptance of the primacy of song – as opposed to textural elaboration, developmental forms, and the like. To my mind these works also have another important characteristic: they presuppose my own musical language as a background resource from which can be extracted the necessarily lighter, airier musical syntax needed here. This particular piece is laid out for very modest forces, and in a very straightforward manner. It consists of a slow opening movement that is entirely lyrical and episodic, followed by a fast movement of rondo type rounded off by a coda marked vivace assai. The two movements are linked by a Recitativo in the middle of the work. Little Concert was commissioned by the Orchestra of St John's Smith Square for their 21st Anniversary with funds from the Greater London Arts. Nicholas Maw

Little Concert

Theatre Royal (Norwich, United Kingdom)

Britten Sinfonia/Paul Lewis

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Little Concert

+ live broadcast on Radio 3 - 7.30pm Rado 3 Live in Concert

Milton Court, Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London, United Kingdom)

Britten Sinfonia/Paul Lewis

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Little Concert

Leith Symington Griswold Hall (Baltimore, MD, USA)

Gene Young/Peabody Conservatory

Little Concert

BBC Radio 3 (United Kingdom)

Britten Sinfonia/Nicholas Cleobury/Nicholas Daniel

Little Concert

The Warehouse, Waterloo (London, United Kingdom)

Andrew Knights/Opus 20