Fazil Say: Violin Concerto – Programme Note and Profile (LSO)

Fazil Say: Violin Concerto – Programme Note and Profile (LSO)

Fazıl Say and Patricia Kopatchinskaja began performing together as an electrifying violinpiano duo in 2004. Four years later they released a CD of works by Béla Bartók, Ludwig van Beethoven, Maurice Ravel and Fazıl Say himself, exhibiting a kindred radicalism …

Betsy Jolas: Ces belles années... – programme note and profile (LSO)

Betsy Jolas: Ces belles années... – programme note and profile (LSO)

In 2014 Betsy Jolas met Sir Simon Rattle at a dinner in London. The encounter was auspicious. It led to a commission for the Berlin Philharmonic, A Little Summer Suite, and marked the beginning of what has been dubbed Jolas’ ‘Indian Summer’, a period of striking productivity and overdue celebrity …

Magnus Lindberg: Piano Concerto No. 3 – programme note (LSO)

Magnus Lindberg: Piano Concerto No. 3 – programme note (LSO)

Concertos often owe their origins to the inspiration of a great performer. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was so impressed with the pioneering clarinettist Anton Stadler that he wrote a concerto – along with several other works – especially for him. A close friendship with Mstislav Rostropovich spurred both of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Cello Concertos …

Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Oboe Concerto – Programme Note & Profile (LSO)

Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Oboe Concerto – Programme Note & Profile (LSO)

After a period of relative neglect, the oboe re-emerged in the 20th century as a fashionable solo instrument. The decade from 1945 to 1955 saw a glut of new oboe concertos from Richard Strauss, Jacques Ibert, Lukas Foss, Malcolm Arnold and Bohuslav Martinů – as well as Bernd Alois Zimmermann …

Wynton Marsalis: Tuba Concerto – programme note & profile (LSO)

Wynton Marsalis: Tuba Concerto – programme note & profile (LSO)

The tuba’s origins can be traced back to the development of the brass band in the early-19th century. Since then, it has found a permanent home in orchestral brass sections, as well as in other musical cultures. But it wasn’t until 1954 that the first tuba concerto was written …

Dani Howard: Trombone Concerto – programme note & profile (London Symphony Orchestra)

Dani Howard: Trombone Concerto – programme note & profile (London Symphony Orchestra)

When Dani Howard first mooted the idea of a concerto to Peter Moore, LSO Principal Trombone, Covid-19 was yet to strike. By the time she began writing the piece, in the summer of 2020, concert halls were silent and many of Howard’s musician colleagues had doggedly set up shop online …