The Violin Concerto was commissioned by Stiftung Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival. It was first performed by Gidon Kremer (violin) and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchester conducted by DennisRussell Davies at the Musikhalle Hamburg Germany on 29 August 2003. Interpolated within this one-minute-one-movement layout is a recurrent refrain where the soloist articulates one of the basic harmonic foundations of anumber of the one minute sections (six dominant 7ths - on E F sharp C A B D) in an undisguised Bachian fashion. The slow arpeggios in the later variants of the refrain not unexpectedly find themselves sharing a bed with theopening of Berg's Violin Concerto. Nyman has effectively adopted Berg's orchestral template with two exceptions - the omission of the alto Saxophone and replaced Berg's Percussion section with Marimba and Vibraphone mallet instruments which intertwine with the soloist in the Concerto. Alban Berg's Violin Concerto was dedicated to 'the memory of an angel' Manon Gropius. Nyman's Concerto was dedicated to the memory of DanielToscan du Plantier a friend and neighbour - in Nyman's words 'certainly no angel but a major figure in the recording and film industries'. Arranged for solo Violin and Piano accompaniment the duration of thiswork is approximately: 25 minutes.

Volver was originally composed by the man whose name is more closely associated than any other with the tango genre, singer/composer Carlos Gardel (1887/1890 - 1935). His birthplace and birthdate are both uncertain and are fiercely debated between France and Uruguay, but he grew up in the Abasto section of Buenos Aires and subsequently became an Argentine citizen. He introduced tangos into his repertoire in 1917, and during his career he composed some of the best-loved of them such as Soledad, Por Una Cabeza, El Dia Que Me Quieras, and, of course, Volver. As a singer he interpreted and recorded literally hundreds of tangos, and he enjoyed enormous world-wide popularity. Gardel died tragically in an airplane accident in Medellín, Colombia, in 1935, a death that plunged all of Latin America into deep mourning. The present author has attempted to modernize Volver by giving it a kind of Afro-Cuban rhythmic structure in its 6/8 time scheme, and he has provided a significant technical and musical challenge to the soloist. / Violon Et Orchestre A Cordes