European American Music Distributors Company is a member of the Schott Music Group

World Premiere of Pēteris Vasks's Concerto, for viola and string orchestra, with BBC National Orchestra of Wales

May. 05, 2016

World Premiere of Pēteris Vasks's <em>Concerto</em>, for viola and string orchestra, with BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Pēteris Vasks, who celebrated his 70th birthday in April, is a featured composer at this year's Vale of Glamorgan Festival in Wales (May 10-20). Several of Vasks’s orchestral, chamber and choral works are presented in concerts throughout the festival, culminating in the world premiere of his Concerto for Viola and String Orchestra on May 20. Violist Maxim Rysanov joins the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for the premiere, which is led by Edwin Outwater at St. David’s Hall.

Vasks’s Concerto for Viola and String Orchestra was co-commissioned by BBC Radio, Vale of Glamorgan Festival and Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg. Following several earlier concertos for other instruments, Vasks’s first viola concerto employs warm, sonorous writing for string orchestra to support the soloist. The two central movements pose exciting technical challenges as the soloist is confronted with extended cadenzas, and the rhythmic fast movement is dominated by near continuous polyphony for the viola. 

Also on the program is Vasks’s Cantabile for string orchestra, and on May 12 the BBC National Orchestra of Wales performs the UK premiere of Vasks’s Sala “Symphonic Elegy”.

Further details on the Festival can be found at valeofglamorganfestival.org.uk. 

For more information on Pēteris Vasks, visit schott-music.com.

Pēteris Vasks
Concerto (2014-2015)
for viola and string orchestra
28’

Cantabile (1979)
for strings
8’ 

Sala (2006)
Symphonic Elegy
for orchestra
3(3.pic).2(2.ca).3(3.bcl).3-4.3.3.1-timp.3perc-hp-str
22’

News