Instrumentation

2(I+II=picc).2.2(I in Bb.II in A).2 – 3.2.1.1 – timp – perc(2): BD/2 low drums/low wood drum/SD/3 low drums of different sizes/large tam-t/3 tam-t/cyms/susp.cym/small bongo/metal guero/wood guero/low wdbl/cowbell/small metal can/metal block (or large anvil) – strings (10.8.6.5.3)

Availability

Score 0571531059, solo part and piano reduction 0571541887 on sale, parts for hire

Programme Notes

I Rings
II Paths
III Rounds

This concerto has three movements, like most, but it is really more of a triptych, as the middle one is the largest. It is the “slow” movement, built from two large, and very many small, independent cycles, which overlap and clash, sometimes violently, in their motion towards resolution.

The outer movements too are circular in design, the first fast, with sheets of unstable harmony in different orbits, the third playful, at ease, with stable cycles moving in harmony at different rates.

This work was commissioned by the Berliner Festspiele and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and first performed by Anthony Marwood, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Thomas Adès on 4th September 2005 in the Kammermusiksaal at the Berliner Festspiele.

© Faber Music 2005

Reviews

'[Adès'] Violin Concerto tours the boundaries of madness, with ecstatic babblings, orchestral cataclysms, stammering brass, and limping dinosaur treads.'
New York Magazine (Justin Davidson), 4 December 2011

Violin Concerto

Broadcast on BBC R3

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Christian Tetzlaff/John Storgårds/BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

Violin Concerto

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Bridgewater Hall (Manchester, United Kingdom)

Christian Tetzlaff/John Storgårds/BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

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