Thomas Adès (1971)

Violin Concerto (2005)

Concentric Paths, for violin and chamber orchestra

  • General information
    • Composition date: 2005
    • Duration: 20 mn
    • Publisher: Faber Music, Londres
    • Opus: 23
    • Commission: Festival de Berlin et le Los Angeles Philharmonic (direction musicale : Esa-Pekka Salonen).
Detailed formation
  • soloist: violin
  • 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 3 horns, 2 trumpets, trombone, tuba, 2 percussionists, 10 violins, 8 second violins, 6 violas, 5 cellos, 3 double basses

Premiere information

  • Date: 4 September 2005
    Location:

    Allemagne, Berlin, Festival de Berlin, Kammermusiksaal


    Performers:

    Anthony Marwood : violon et l'orchestre de chambre d'Europe, direction : Thomas Adès.

Table of contents

  • I. Rings
  • II. Paths
  • III. Rounds

Program note

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.

Extrait du livret du CD « Adès – Violin Concerto », CD EMI Classics, 2007.