Violin Concerto - Version For Sinfonietta

2007 Version-Per Nørgård's Helle Nacht (Light Night) - Violin Concerto No. 1 dating from 1986-87. Version for Violin solo and small Orchestra (Sinfonietta). Programme note by the composer: This is my third work for solo string instrument and orchestra the other two being 'Between' for cello and 'Remembering Child' for viola. The title 'Light Night' refers to the characteristics of each of the four movements. The 'light' translucent quality of the melody sound and rhythm woven into a fine filigree; the Night revealed in the multi-layered possibilities of interpretation like/constantly/changing theaspect of a turning prism with each performing appearing differently to the listeners. Of course this is more or less the case with every musical work but in HELLE NACHT the ambiguity  is made innermost principle. The first and last movements form a symphonic frame for the inner two more static interludes. Though even in these sections light is constantly breaking through in a spectral way. The concerto was composed during 1986-87 and premiered by Anton Kontra. The sinfonietta version was premiered by Peter Herresthal and Remix Ensemble in 2007.

For Violin Viola and Piano (Reduced from the orchestra version). Britten was so remarkably prolific as a young composer that many of the works from his teens were put aside to await revision or completion as he rushed on tothe next piece. This was particularly the case around the time of his Opus 1 Sinfonietta composed in the summer of 1932 his second year as a student at the Royal College Of Music.The Sinfonietta waswritten (in less than three weeks) very soon after Britten had completed the first draft of the Double Concerto; but after finishing the Sinfonietta he went back to revise the Concerto's second movement. He started workon his Op.2 Phantasy for Oboe and String Trio a few weeks later.Although the Concerto follows the same three-movement pattern as the Sinfonietta it is more ambitious in scale; and since the sketchis unusually for Britten complete in practically every detail it is puzzling that he never made a full score of the work after finishing the composition and seems to have made no attempt to get it performed. It is not clear ifhe had particular performers in mind (he was of course a Viola player although he is not likely to have intended the part for himself). He showed the work to his composition teacher at the college John Ireland who as Brittenrecorded in his diary was 'pretty pleased' with it; but it is distinctly possible that his experience in rehearsing the Sinfonietta with a student orchestra in 1932 ('I have never heard such an appalling row!' readsanother diary entry) discouraged him from going on to complete the Double Concerto in score. He was not to hear any of his orchestral works until the first performance of Our Hunting Fathers in 1936.In theabsence of Britten's full score it was necessary for me to prepare the work from the sketch. But the instrumentation is so carefully indicated in the draft that the resulting score is not far from being 100% Britten - only between