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Double Violin Concerto (1997)
Mark O'Connor's last appearance at the Cabrillo Music Festival was in 1994,
which saw the West Coast premiere of his Fiddle Concerto, a work which has
gone on to become one of the most frequently performed contemporary violin
concerti. Since then he has written two additional concerti and has
released two best-selling albums, "Appalachia Waltz" and
"Appalachian Journey" with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and bassist Edgar Meyer
as well as a solo album in 1998, "Midnight on the Water." This
performance of the Double Violin Concerto is kind of a pre-premiere before
its official introduction at Chicago's Ravinia Festival on August 12.
O'Connor has written the following notes:
The Double Violin Concerto for two violins and orchestra, composed in 1997,
is my third symphonic concerto for violin. It follows the Fiddle Concerto
(1992-93) and Three Pieces for Violin and Orchestra (Fanfare for the
Volunteer) from 1995-96. Other than the obvious difference of having
two violins featured in this concerto, I also make a stylistic departure
from the first two pieces with the Double Concerto. Where I previously
concentrated on bringing folk-fiddling traditions of America and Ireland to
a symphonic setting, there I utilize some of the most important musical
inspirations I absorbed as a child -- blues and jazz.
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In this concerto, I wanted to concentrate on swing rhythms in the outer movements. For this I employed canonic writing, both in the solo parts and the orchestration, to emphasize the swing feel. The accents and melodic phrasing within the canon bring out the syncopation, an essential element in achieving the feel of jazz and swing. In some cases, the swing rhythms are the result of implication rather than performance -- in the case of the two violins, how the parts fit together; in the orchestra, how the layers of parts in fugue-like configurations all create rhythmic pulses in the music. My method of creating canonic syncopation is a unique and possibly even a new idea for orchestration. Rather than using the type of vertical writing common to orchestral jazz, I use an almost completely linear composition technique in the first and third movements. A refrain can be heard again and again throughout the three movements, linking them melodically, though it is delivered contrarily in three corresponding tempi and rhythms. The nine-note motive stated once and repeated immediately an octave lower is conclusion for the second movement. Finally, the refrain is used as a subordinate counterpoint theme in the last movement. With the slow theme of the second movement, I wanted to conjure a nostalgic, big-band ambience -- the feeling of midnight on the dance floor. The two violins speak alternately to each other in classical and bluesy melodic language. The two-violin cadenza in the first movement is a duel -- in jazz terms, a "cutting" contest. The violins begin by trading long passages that get incrementally shorter. Each attempts to outdo the other until there is nothing more to do but join forces. Each plays over the top of the other in a furious, jazzy barrage. In the third movement, each violinist takes a cadenza. The first soloist interprets the music in a melodic, romantic and classically modern voice. The second soloist "struts" musically alongside a walking bass line in the truest of jazz solo traditions -- improvisation. not recorded • Program notes by Lawrence Duckles  |
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