Salonen’s Violin Concerto
The concerto for violin and orchestra was written by Esa-Pekka Salonen toward the end of his 17-year tenure as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. As he writes: “During the composing process of the Violin Concerto, I felt that I was somehow trying to sum up everything I had learned and experienced up to that point in my life as a musician”.
On this CD, the concerto is coupled with ‘Nyx’, composed in 2011, a single-movement piece for full orchestra that paints a musical portrait of the shadowy Greek goddess.
Let me begin with some tracks from my Spotify files called “Hank’s Salonen” featuring the Violin concerto:
The tracks on this CD are:
1. Salonen: Violin Concerto – Movement One: Mirage, Leila Josefowicz, soloist
2. Salonen: Violin Concerto – Movement Two: Pulse I
3. Salonen: Violin Concerto – Movement Three: Pulse II
4. Salonen: Violin Concerto – Movement Four: Adieu
5. Salonen: Nyx; performed by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
In the concerto, from a composition standpoint, one can hear traces of Bela Bartok’s style, and also music patterned after Igor Stravinsky. The performance of the concerto by violinist Leila Josefowicz is excellent.
Here is Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto, with Leila Josefowicz, violin, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, directed by Salonen himself:
And here is Leila Josefowicz playing an excerpt from Esa-Pekka Salonen’s “Lachen Verlernt” (un-learning laughter), in a much more casual setting:
Tags: Esa-Pekka Salonen, Violin Concerto, Leila Josefowicz, violin