Joaquín Rodrigo: Fantasía para un gentilhombre Context Composed in 1954 for guitarist Andrés Segovia, Fantasía para un gentilhombre (Fantasia for a Gentleman) was premiered by Segovia and The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Enrique Jordá. Fantasía is Rodrigo’s second most popular work, after his beloved Concierto de Aranjuez. Read more…
Sergei Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.1 Context Composed initially in 1891 when he was just 18 years old, Sergei Rachmaninov’s First Piano Concerto was heavily revised in 1917. After abandoning sketches of a concerto in C minor, Rachmaninov pursued the sketches of what we know to be the First Piano Concerto. Read more…
George Walker: Concerto for Trombone Context Composed in 1957, George Walker’s Trombone Concerto was one of the earliest of its kind for the modern trombone. The premiere took place in 1957 at a concert conducted by American composer, Howard Hanson. The concerto shows off Walker’s wide-range of inspirations, from Beethoven Read more…
Ursula Mamlok: Concerto for Oboe Context Born on February 1st, 1923, Ursula Mamlok was born in Berlin, Germany into a primarily Jewish family. Her biological father, Hans Meyer, died when she was a baby, but her mother remarried fairly soon after. Mamlok composed and performed as a child in Berlin, however, Read more…
Missy Mazzoli: Dark with Excessive Bright Context Missy Mazolli composed Dark with Excessive Bright specifically for contrabass soloist, Maxime Bibeau and the Australian Chamber Orchestra in 2018. Part of Mazzoli’s programme note reads: “I was inspired in no small part by Maxime’s double bass, a massive instrument built in Read more…
Joseph Haydn: Trumpet Concerto Context Composed in 1796, Joseph Haydn’s ever-popular Trumpet Concerto in Eb Major was his last major orchestral work. At this point in his life, Haydn had just moved back to Vienna, and so the first performance of the concerto was on 28th March 1800 at the Read more…
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Horn Concerto No.4 Context Composed for virtuoso horn player Joseph Leutgeb, Mozart’s Fourth Horn Concerto is one his most colourful. So colourful that Mozart actually penned the score in red, green, blue and black ink! There are two potential reasons for the extra colour. The first is Read more…
Joan Tower: Violin Concerto Context Joan Tower was born in New Rochelle, New York in 1938. When Tower was nine, her family moved to Bolivia, which she describes as an integral part of her compositional style. Upon her father’s insistence, she learnt the piano and had consistent musical training. Her Read more…
Antonio Vivaldi: Bassoon Concerto in E minor Context Antonio Vivaldi composed a vast amount of concertos for a range of different instruments. No less than 230 of those are for violin, with the second most popular concerto soloist being the bassoon for Vivaldi. Out of the 39 bassoon concertos that Read more…
Richard Addinsell: Warsaw Concerto Context Richard Addinsell is now most remembered for his work on film music. He wrote music for films such as Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), Scrooge (1940) and Dangerous Moonlight (1941). He led the way in the popularity of ‘tabloid concertos’ – classical compositions for solo instruments Read more…