Peter Maxwell Davies - Sinfonia Concertante; Sinfonia

Peter MAXWELL DAVIES (1934-2016

Sinfonia Concertante (1982)

Sinfonia (1962)

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Peter Maxwell Davies

COMPOSER’S NOTE

The Sinfonia Concertante was written in 1982, and is my first attempt at a form related to the concerto. The displays of technical virtuosity for the soloists - flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn - are closer to the eighteenth than to the nineteenth century - but nonetheless make extremely heavy demands on the players' dexterity and musicality. However, there are no cadenzas, as such. 

To the accompanying string band I added timpani - mainly for the sake of their dramatic power, at the conclusion of the second movement, for instance, or very early in the third. 

The work opens with an introductory slow 'quest' for the home tonality of D minor, flute and oboe exchanging scraps of melodic figurations which make the basic melodic and harmonic building-blocks for the whole structure - over a gradually stabilizing bass line. 

The strings take over at the D minor cadence - and this section, until the horn entry, confirms and extends the previous flute and oboe material's relation to this tonality, and prefigures the tonal areas and isorhythmic parameters to be developed later - although it may all be heard, at the same time, as a transition to the Allegro proper, starting with the horn solo. 

For a first hearing, it should be useful to identify the horn solo as first subject material, and the bassoon solo as second subject; the development starts with the clarinet entry, and there is a brief recapitulation (disguised as a transition, but with the horn pointing its true identity). This background of sonata processes for processes of transformation and substitution of material more closely related to pre-classical forms, and to modality, rather than to the tonality particular to 'real' sonata development. 

The Andante starts with long melodic lines divided between oboe and flute, over slowly changing harmonies, with rhythmic definition provided by string pizzicatos. The relationship to the opening of the first movement is meant to be clear - this Andante may be regarded as a slow 'double' of that whole movement. 

The finale starts with an introduction for the five 'concertante' soloists - as the opening Allegro had a sonata-form background, so this one has a rondo background, providing brilliant display material for each of the wind in turn. After the rondo has run its course, there is a short transition (pizzicato strings, with bassoon and horn) winding down to a sequence of bell-like chords (some with string pizzicato) bridging to a coda which underlines the central D minor. The ending could have been brilliant and loud; after much deliberation I chose something else, which, I hope, makes convincing poetic sense.