Cor Anglais Concerto - 2013
duration 26 minutes
I. Allegro vivo II. Gentle, slow, melancholy III. Presto
I have always wanted to write a concerto for this most royal of instruments. Having been an oboist of no distinction in my youth, the instrument and its larger cousin helped to form my musical persona. In 2012 I was in the Czech Republic for the première of my Double Concerto by the Moravská Filharmonie. This work's slow movement features a solo for the cor anglais and thus the idea was rekindled that I might finally get around to writing the piece. I also kept in my mind the superb player with whom I had chatted briefly after a rehearsal. It was a huge pleasure to be offered a performance in February 2023 by my tireless champion Ondřej Vrabec, now Chief Conductor of the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra. Asked if I had a soloist in mind, I immediately asked for Gabriela Kummerová, the player I had heard ten years before in Olomouc.
The concerto falls into a traditional pattern of fast-slow-fast and is, in my own quirky sort of way, quite an approachable, "public" piece. The soloist has a somewhat schizophrenic musical character, oscillating between a poe-faced energy and more lyrical melody. The first movement makes repeated use of a combination of whip and violin glissandi. It's "busy sobreity" is punctuated by dancing brass fanfares and a lilting waltz. The slow movement sprang from hearing some distant bells in the Pyrenees. This gently repeated ostinato gave rise to my movement's accompaniment, against which the cor anglais sings what I hope is a sustained, extended, beautiful melody. The finale has touches of melodrama, with tremolandi and harp glissandi firing off a hectic romp; a dance that seems perpetually to tumble over itself.
It occurs to me that an alto saxophone might also play this work...
VIDEO of premiere - Gabriela Kummerová with the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Ondřej Vrabec at the ballroom of Lázně III (Windsor Hotel), Karlovy Vary - Feb. 2023.
PLEASE READ: THIS IS NOT A PUBLIC DOMAIN WORK. ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED. PRINTED COPIES ARE FOR EVALUATION PURPOSES ONLY
SCORE (A3)
piano reduction (for rehearsal purposes only)
mp3s - Gabriela Kummerová with the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Ondřej Vrabec at the ballroom of Lázně III (Windsor Hotel), Karlovy Vary - Feb. 2023.
I. Allegro vivo II. Gentle, slow, melancholy III. Presto
If you have arrived at this page from a search engine (e.g. Google) and cannot see the menu system, please click here.