Programme Note
Composer Note:
The Concerto was composed in 2001 and scored this past year. It is in two movements. The opening four-note phrase played by the solo viola will become the musical material for all that will follow. The structure of the work with its shifting moods and tempi are a series of continuous variants on this four-note cell. The music embraces both tonality and atonality, bringing the two aesthetics together to form a seamless whole. A broad range of emotional and technical demands emerge as the Concerto unfolds, its dramatic line having the feel of an epistolary novel. While the solo viola is clearly the protagonist, the orchestra plays a truly collaborative role. The Concerto was written for and affectionately dedicated to Steven Ansell.
—Ezra Laderman