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Concerto for Wind Quintet and String Orchestra
I wrote this concerto at the request of the Clarion Wind Quintet and dedicated it to the Clarion Quintet and the Piedmont Chamber Orchestra. I am attracted to the concerto form because it allows me considerable freedom in experimentation with compositional design and the exploration of virtuosic capabilities of individual instruments.
The form of the entire work is loosely based on the classical, rather than the baroque, concerto for. In the first movement, a sonata-allegro, three musical ideas are presented and developed: a chord motive, a vigorous principal theme, and a lyrical second theme in a slower tempo.
The opening of the second movement is a passacaglia--a repetition of a single theme with increasingly elaborate superimposed ornamentation. This is followed by "night music"--a quieter period of coloristic effects. The middle of the second movement is waltzlike in character. The final section is marked by a return of the "night music" followed by the passacaglia in a varied form.
The third movement is a rondo (ABA coda). The A section, in a vigorous 6/8 meter, is characterized by short, rhythmically strident themes. The B section, in 2/4 meter, features solos by individual instruments in the quintet and the principal violin. The piece concludes with the return of the A section in varied form and a whirlwind coda.
Concerto for Wind Quintet and String Orchestra has been recorded by the Clarion Quintet and the Piedmont Chamber Orchestra on GOLDEN CREST: CRS-4188.
This work is available from: Boosey & Hawkes.
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