Allan Gravgaard Madsen: Concerto Grosso for String Quartet and Orchestra

DESCRIPTION OF THE WORK BELOW
Concerto Grosso (2018-2022) for String Quartet and Orchestra
00:00 I. Notturno I
11:15 II. Intermezzo I
12:40 III. Intermezzo II
17:08 IV. Notturno II
CONCERTO GROSSO
text by Solveig Lindeskov Andersen, Edition·S:
It is a pivotal aspect of Allan Gravgaard Madsen's compositional process to get to know the musicians on a more personal level in order to write music for them. In 'Concerto Grosso' this is manifested in - among other things - a distorted reference to Irving Berlin - the composer behind the favourite lockdown piano repertoire of one of the soloists. And the tempo through most of the first movement matches a sound recording of a running tempo of another soloist.
Allan Gravgaard Madsen talks about his music as standstill and movement: "You have a certain pitch which sounds for a long time, but you hear it through various rhythms, registers and timbres. The pitch is dressed in different colours you might say, and even though the pitch itself stands still, it is moving." The entire first movement of 'Concerto Grosso' consists of no more than four pitches. Not four random pitches, of course, and this is where Gravgaard Madsen's number systems come into play: J, A, C and K are the 10th, 1st, 3rd and 11th letters in the alphabet and transferred to a chromatic scale from the middle C this gives you the pitches A, C, D and B flat.
"I believe that the audience will not notice that the material is limited to four pitches because the registers, timbre and rhythm constantly change," Allan Gravgaard Madsen explains. "When I limit the musical material to a minimum and start digging into these limitations, I am free to create new possibilities and push it to the limit. That incites a certain presence in the material - and in the musicians when they work with the piece. It is my hope, that the music will capture the audience in that presence."
The Concerto Grosso is filled with techniques and ideas that will capture the attention of the audience. The first movement consists of 23 variations, and the second movement is an extremely short remix of the first movement with just a glimpse of music from each of the 23 variations. In the third movement, a number of jazz chords are layered on top of each other in a descending musical cloud and in the fourth movement the distinction between reality and dream world is dissolved.
Read the whole article here:
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BONUS:
Video with insights about piece by JACK Quartet's John Pickford Richards, composer Allan Gravgaard Madsen and conductor Ryan Bancroft:
• Concerto Grosso - inte...
INFO:
Concerto Grosso (2018-2022) for String Quartet and Orchestra
First performed by JACK Quartet, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra and conductor Ryan Bancroft
May 19th 2022 in Symfonisk Sal, Musikhuset Aarhus, Denmark.
'Concerto Grosso' was commissioned by Aarhus Symphony Orchestra with support from the Danish Arts Foundation, Danish Composers' Society and KODA Culture.
Film made by Format:film Film & Fotografi for Edition·S
Score is published by Edition·S
edition-s.dk/m...