Concerto for Violin & Orchestra - Dances, Elegies & Epitaphs

A consistent theme in my practice-as-research is the repurposing of classical musical forms. My Violin Concerto explores the sub-genre concerto types which seek to extend the form in context and content. The concerto as symphony with violin obbligato has a strong tradition in British music (e.g. Elgar, 1910; Britten, 1939; Nicholas Maw, 1994). Mine further develops that concept, also incorporating a Purcell theme, from the G minor Violin Sonata (c.1690). This interpolation takes the form in novel directions, firstly bringing the English tradition to the fore in my musical style. Further resonances come via implied connection to English composers who similarly invoke Purcell and the English baroque (from Macfarren and Parry to Britten and Tippett). The Purcell theme appears as an idée fixe throughout the work, absorbed in my musical style and texture, but at the same time colouring and redirecting the music in ways that are new in my musical practice. The second movement utilises other elements of the baroque, especially the French overture manner (the French Baroque also being a feature of Purcell’s music), into an extended funeral march. The concerto, therefore, places historicism in the foreground of its style, as a way of casting extramusical meaning and implying the spiritual. The closing part of Purcell’s theme is quoted in the final movement, so the ‘palimpsest’ quality of the work is stripped back to reveal original Purcell, in its clearest form in the concerto, in musical textures that seek to be both ecstatic and transformative, a new approach in my work which produces new insights. The concerto was publicly performed in London, Lithuania and Berlin through 2015 and 2016, culminating in a well-received CD recording by Philippe Graffin and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (2017).

1) Concerto for Violin & Orchestra (2015): 30 minute orchestral work, premiered by violinist Philippe Graffin with the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Jean-Jacques Kantorow at Cadogan Hall London.

2) Dances, elegies and epitaphs: the music of Peter Fribbins (2017): Orchestral and instrumental works by the British composer Peter Fribbins. Artists: Philippe Graffin (violin) , Robertas Šervenikas (conductor), Christopher Hart (trumpet), Royal Scottish National Orchestra.