On 12 December Ryan Bancroft conducted George Benjamin’s Concerto for Orchestra with the Tapiola Sinfonietta at their home in Espoo. The Concerto is varied and dynamic across an unbroken 17-minute span, with skittish lines playing against still, suspended ones. Its various instrumental protagonists play multiple roles – both dramatic and sonoric – including a volatile solo tuba, elaborate horn duos, bubbling clarinets and two pairs of rumbling timpani. Most prominent of all are the impassioned first violins, who almost have the last word during the work’s tranquil conclusion.
Watch Benjamin conduct the Philharmonique de Radio France in the Concerto for Orchestra here. The piece debuted in 2021 at the BBC Proms with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, conducted by the composer. Benjamin has said that the piece attempts “to conjure a trace of the energy, humour, and spirit” of its dedicatee Oliver Knussen; in December 2023 Benjamin programmed the piece alongside Knussen’s Choral (1970-72) for wind, percussion and double basses at the Concertgebouw.
The performance follows the Swiss premiere in September 2024, conducted by the composer at the Lucerne Festival, the Portuguese debut of the work with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in April, and its Spanish premiere in June from Santiago Serrate and the Orquestra Sinfonica de Madrid at the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards, which honoured Benjamin in 2024. It received its Finnish premiere from the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Nicholas Collon as part of a focus on Benjamin in November 2023.
The full score of the Concerto for Orchestra was published in 2022 and is available to purchase here. Since its premiere the piece has received over 20 performances internationally; as well as the MCO, Concertgebouw, and Orchestra Philharmonique de Radio France, its exponents have included the London Symphony Orchestra, Gürzenich Orchester, and Orchestre National de Lille. Benjamin himself has conducted the work on numerous occasions; other conductors to take it up have included Daniel Harding and Susanna Mälkki.