Concerto

for Violin and Orchestra

Composed: 2009 (second movement revised 2022)
Commission:  CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, James Gaffigan, conductor, Arts and Culture as Economic Development Program, Cuyahoga County of Ohio, The Honorables Jimmy Dinora, Timothy F. Hagan, Peter Lawson Jones
Premiere:   Michi Wiancko, violin, CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, James Gaffigan, conductor, March, 28, 2007
Duration: 24 minutes
Instrumentation:  solo violin, 1 (picc) 122; 2210; 1perc., strings, (65432)

Please note there are 2 versions:
Slow movement: original version with improvised cadenza and drum set
Slow movement: alternate cadenza without improvisation and drum set

PROGRAM NOTES

I.  Narrative
II. Ballad
III. Gypsy

The Concerto for Violin and Chamber Orchestra is an experiment in layering.  More and more, my harmonic sound is about the contrasts that occur by juxtaposing or overlaying consonant and dissonant (tonal-type and atonal-type) harmonies.  To me this says – “21st century”.  In the concerto, there are some fairly tonal sections, but there is also a 12-tone row stated quite strictly by the solo violin in the first two and one half measures of the piece.  This row winds its way through all three movements in various permutations.  Politics also inspired a short musical quote in the first movement, (Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind”).  Underlying feelings of frustration and sadness haunt Narrative.  However, the second and third movements lead to brighter and happier moods. In Ballad, after trying complex and thick openings, melody with complex harmonies, melody with tonal harmonies, I leaned more and more toward utter simplicity.  Somehow a melody, beautiful in its absolute simplicity that would gradually evolve to more complexity and more layers seemed the most powerful.  Musicians have so much fun, in the gypsy music I have heard, playing with abandon at break-neck speed!  Gypsy is about high spirits, having fun, playfulness, going fast, sometimes-wild music, and the dazzling violin!

 The Concerto for Violin and Chamber Orchestra was commissioned for violinist Michi Wiancko by CityMusic Cleveland, James Gaffigan, Conductor, and sponsored in part by Arts and Culture as Economic Development (ACE) Program, The Honorables Jimmy Dimora, Timothy F. Hagan, and Peter Lawson Jones with Co-Sponsors Clurie Bennis, Dr. Victor Ceicys and Mrs. Kathleen Browning Ceicys, the Elyria Musical Art Society, Pamela and Scott Isquick and David Krakowski.

REVIEWS

"...Brouwer's Concerto for Violin and Chamber Orchestra adds another fine vehicle to the repertoire... Brouwer finds a keen balance between contemporary and tonal language throughout her fresh creation."  - Donald Rosenberg, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Spring 2008

Regarding the CityMusic Cleveland CD:
"But the real winner here, and the primary reason for buying this disc, is the superb offering by... Brouwer, one of our best composers, and certainly near the top.  This Violin Concerto, written specifically for this ensemble, is simply a marvel to hear, combining phenomenally difficult solo passages with some of the most ingratiating melodies I have heard in a recent composition...  For those of us who, years ago, were wondering where music might turn after the challenges of the atonalists, this is it.  She is not afraid of the modern idiom, and uses whatever techniques are called for in the moment, but at the same time never loses sense of that fundamental and essential musical ingredient called melody.  The work ends in a veritable Gypsy orgy, high spirits with just a degree of danger inhabiting the outskirts.  These last two movements make the opening, a dark and sometimes borderline melancholy, stand in great contrast, and deceptively set you up for wild changes in temperament that add to the frustration-elation cycle of the piece.  Michi Wiancko, concermistress of CityMusic Cleveland, plays as if possessed with an innate understanding of this music that lends itself to a completely convincing reading." --Steven E. Ritter, Fanfare, May-June 2008

"The (Concerto for Violin and Chamber Orchestra) has long stretches of tricky, impassioned cadenzas and a second movement ("Ballad") influenced by British folk-pop. This is no attempt at crossover appeal:  the music sounds spontaneous and disarming. Brouwer adds dashes of gypsy music to the finale, in keeping with the soloist's interest in music off the classical path." - Donald Rosenberg, Gramophone, March 2008