Holloway Fourth Concerto premiere in San Francisco

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(January 2007)

Robin Holloway’s Fourth Concerto for Orchestra, commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, receives its world premiere on 1 February conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. Both orchestra and conductor have forged close associations with Holloway, giving notable performances of his Clarissa Sequence, Third Concerto for Orchestra, Viola Concerto and his orchestration of Debussy’s En blanc et noir which they toured around the USA in 2004.

Holloway’s Concertos for Orchestra are central works within his output, with the second and third recorded for NMC by the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Gramophone Contemporary Record of the Year in 1994) and London Symphony Orchestra respectively. The new Fourth Concerto (2002-06) is inspired by the English medieval poem Piers Plowman, written by William Langland in the late 14th century, and promises, like its predecessors, to be a showcase for Holloway’s skills as a master- orchestrator.

After a mysterious, prophetic prologue, The Fair Field Full of Folk is an exuberant scherzo-rondo with references to popular and religious music whirling in and out in Ivesian manner. A dance sequence of the Seven Deadly Sins is followed by a movement depicting Piers’ metaphorical “ploughing of the earth’s surface, digging in the dung and debris, sowing the good seed that will eventuate in an abundant harvest”. A second mirroring dance sequence of the Seven Virtues is followed by an epilogue in which the mystic summons is transformed into an apotheosis as Piers’ worldly labour is achieved.

Holloway’s loving elaboration of Bach, Gilded Goldberg, provided the music for Nacho Duato’s most recent dancework for the Compañia Nacional de Danza de Madrid, premiered last autumn. His Fourth Idyll, co-commissioned by the City of London Sinfonia, Vasteras Sinfonietta and Hong Kong Sinfonietta receives its first performance conducted by Richard Hickox in November, with performances in Sweden and Hong Kong following in 2008.

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