French Concerto

Instrumentation

Cello
1
Flute
1
Harpsichord
1
Violin
1

Additional Information

Marie van Rhijn (of Les Arts Florissants), who had performed my solo harpsichord music, asked me to write a piece for Trio Dauphine; an ensemble of harpsichord, baroque violin, and single action harp. Trio Dauphine gave the premiere in France in 2015. I subsequently made up a fresh version for Rebecca Pechefsky and the Omni Ensemble, and they gave the US premiere in New York in 2016. This version is the one that is published here – flute, violin, cello, harpsichord.

Another arrangement – for saxophone, violin, and piano – was premiered in Cambridge in autumn 2018.

Although all the music is original, and no pastiche intended, the piece deliberately plays around with the style of the French clavicenists, and refracts it in different directions; beginning with a mosaic of ideas that gradually opens out into longer sections. The spirit is that of Watteau, Fragonard, of ‘jouissance’.

Tags

Details

Year
Publisher
Composers Edition
Score file
Minutes
14

Recordings

Notes
Live recording
Performers
Rebecca Pechefsky and the Omni Ensemble,
Title
French Concerto