Esa-Pekka Salonen – Violin Concerto

General – Four movements (two shorter, connected middle movements surrounded by

two longer movements), regular sized orchestra (On the smaller side - only 2 horns,
strings 12.12.10.8.8; interesting instruments - contrabass clarinet, drum kit, large
selection of tuned gongs)

I. Mirage
 Constant motion violin almost throughout (sixteenths)
 Pitched percussion instruments pick out little points to accentuate. In order:
celeste, glockenspiel, vibraphone, harp…
 Until the rest of the orchestra comes in suddenly, slows down the violin and takes
over its job, splitting the sixteenth note runs between the woodwinds and celeste.
 Violin returns, again very active, this time with the full orchestra accompanying
(accentuating). It is again stopped and taken over by the rest of the orchestra in
the next section; sixteenth notes are now split between a wider instrumentation.
 Violin returns and this game continues, but more condensed and with the
orchestra, at times, on an equal footing. The violin ultimately comes out on top,
with the rest of the orchestra supporting it.
 The underlying subdivision is sped up as the violin plays rapid arpeggios.
 Great new, minimal idea of a violin cadenza, playing with drawn-out harmonics

II. Pulse I
 Beginning comes straight out of violin cadenza of first movement; the orchestra
expands on the idea of different harmonics being brought out of the solo violin
line.
 The strings are split into 26 different solo parts, making up lush, but subtle chords
with harmonics and trills.
 The timpani plays straight quarter notes that go in and out of phase with the pulse
of the rest of the orchestra due to measures of 7/8.
 The shortest and most delicate of all the movements.
  It ends with a cadenza of the same type as the first movement. The whole
movement could be seen as an extension of that first cadenza – or at least that
cadenza is more a part of the second movement than the first.

III. Pulse II
 A very different take on ‘pulse’; the most rambunctious, percussive movement.
 Takes constant sixteenth-note movement of first movement and puts it in a more
in-your-face setting.
 Only movement with third percussionist (drum kit), using the hi-hat as a possible
allusion to the typical idea of ‘pulse’ in rock, and to act as the ultimate anti-violin
in their ending ‘battle’.
 The quarter not pulse of the timpani is here used in otherwise solo violin
passages, very quietly keeping the energetic pulse going.
 Fifth chords in timpani and violin possibly another allusion to rock (‘power
chords’)

IV. Adieu
 The most different in mood from all the other movements – romantic, dramatic,
somber in the end.
 Takes elements of all other movements and puts them in a completely new
context.
- Rich, textural harmonies of the second movement
- Constant pulsing of second and third movements, again as fifth chords, in harp,
cello and contrabass.
 Almost ‘micropolyphonic’ texture, hinted at in other movements, played by the
violins and violas near the end. More like ‘inner pulsing’ of harmonies.
 Parts of the solo violin part sound like the first movement, only slowed down.