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Scoring

2(II=picc).picc.2.corA.2(II=Eb,bcl).bcl.2.dbn-4.3.3.1-perc(2): timp/glsp/crot/vib/sm&lg susp.cym/sm&lg SD/tam-t/BD-strings (either 16.14.12.10.8 or 14.12.10.8.6)

Abbreviations (PDF)

Publisher

Boosey & Hawkes (Hendon Music)

Territory
This work is available from Boosey & Hawkes for the world.

Availability

World Premiere
5/2/1990
San Francisco, CA
Ole Bohn, violin / San Francisco Symphony / Herbert Blomstedt
Programme Note

Composed for the Norwegian soloist Ole Bøhn, this is one of the great violin concertos of the late twentieth century, in company with those of György Ligeti and John Adams. Its shape is unusually orthodox for Carter: a big opening movement, full of combat and of urgent lyricism from the soloist, is followed by a slow movement and then a light, capricious finale. Carter’s violin, though, is typically independent. It spends most of the slow movement resisting the orchestra’s invitations to relax into elegy, and it turns the finale from dancing humor to a renewal of argument, cuing a cadenza.


- Programme note by Paul Griffiths



Reproduction Rights:
This programme note can be reproduced free of charge in concert programmes with a credit to the author.

Recommended Recording
cd_cover

Ole Böhn/London Sinfonietta/Oliver Knussen
Warner Classics 2066292

Click here to purchase the digital recording from Amazon

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