Piano Concerto No. 2 (MacMillan)

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The Piano Concerto No. 2 is a composition for solo piano and string orchestra by the Scottish composer James MacMillan. The work was commissioned by the New York City Ballet and was first performed at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on May 8, 2004, by the pianist Cameron Grant and the New York City Ballet Orchestra under MacMillan. The original ballet performance was choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon. The piece is dedicated in memory of the poet Edwin Muir. [1]

Piano musical instrument

The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700, in which the strings are struck by hammers. It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings.

A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first and second violin players, the viola, the cello, and usually, but not always, the double bass.

Sir James Loy MacMillan, CBE is a Scottish classical composer and conductor.

Contents

Composition

Background

The inception for the Piano Concerto No. 2 began when the English choreographer Christopher Wheeldon first approached MacMillan about expanding one of his compositions—1999's "Cumnock Fair" for string quintet—into a larger work fit for a ballet production. MacMillan subsequently wrote an adagio and fast finale that became the second and third movements, respectively. MacMillan described revisiting the piece in the score program notes, writing:

Christopher Peter Wheeldon OBE is an English international choreographer of contemporary ballet.

Cumnock Fair's original title was 'Hoodicraw Peden' who was Scotland's seventeenth century talibanesque covenanting 'hero' referred to in Edwin Muir's excoriating poem 'Scotland 1941'. Peden was infamous for the crow's mask he used to wear as he went about his zealotry in Cumnock and elsewhere in south-west Scotland. I decided to revisit the Muir poem for inspiration for the two new movements. [1]

Additionally, the movement titles "Shambards" and "Shamnation" are made-up words based on the same poem by Edwin Muir. [1]

Structure

The composition has a duration of roughly 30 minutes and is composed in three movements:

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession. A movement is a section, "a major structural unit perceived as the result of the coincidence of relatively large numbers of structural phenomena".

A unit of a larger work that may stand by itself as a complete composition. Such divisions are usually self-contained. Most often the sequence of movements is arranged fast-slow-fast or in some other order that provides contrast.

  1. Cumnock Fair
  2. Shambards
  3. Shamnation

Instrumentation

The work is scored for solo piano and a string orchestra comprising first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses. [1]

Violin bowed string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths

The violin, sometimes known as a fiddle, is a wooden string instrument in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and highest-pitched instrument in the family in regular use. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino piccolo and the kit violin, but these are virtually unused. The violin typically has four strings tuned in perfect fifths with notes G3, D4, A4, E5, and is most commonly played by drawing a bow across its strings, though it can also be played by plucking the strings with the fingers (pizzicato) and by striking the strings with the wooden side of the bow.

Viola bowed string instrument

The viola (; Italian pronunciation: [ˈvjɔːla]) is a string instrument that is bowed or played with varying techniques. It is slightly larger than a violin and has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the violin family, between the violin (which is tuned a perfect fifth above) and the cello (which is tuned an octave below). The strings from low to high are typically tuned to C3, G3, D4, and A4.

Cello musical instrument

The cello ( CHEL-oh; plural cellos or celli) or violoncello ( VY-ə-lən-CHEL-oh; Italian pronunciation: [vjolonˈtʃɛllo]) is a string instrument. It is played by bowing or plucking its four strings, which are usually tuned in perfect fifths an octave lower than the viola: from low to high, C2, G2, D3 and A3. It is the bass member of the violin family, which also includes the violin, viola and the double bass, which doubles the bass line an octave lower than the cello in much of the orchestral repertoire. After the double bass, it is the second-largest and second lowest (in pitch) bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra. The cello is used as a solo instrument, as well as in chamber music ensembles (e.g., string quartet), string orchestras, as a member of the string section of symphony orchestras, most modern Chinese orchestras, and some types of rock bands.

Reception

Stephen Johnson of BBC Music Magazine gave the concerto moderate praise, saying it "has its moments of spellbound celebration, like the strings' imitation of improvised Gallic psalm-singing (one of the loveliest things in all folk music) in the central slow movement". [2] Andrew Achenbach of Gramophone similarly lauded:

<i>BBC Music Magazine</i> magazine

BBC Music Magazine is a monthly magazine. The first issue appeared in June 1992. BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC was the original owner and publisher together with the Warner Music Enterprises during its initial phase. Immediate Media Company has been the publisher since 2012.

<i>Gramophone</i> (magazine) UK monthly magazine published in London devoted to classical music, particularly to reviews of recordings

Gramophone is a magazine published monthly in London devoted to classical music, particularly to reviews of recordings. It was founded in 1923 by the Scottish author Compton Mackenzie. It was acquired by Haymarket in 1999. In 2013 the Mark Allen Group became the publisher.

Scored for piano and strings, it is in three movements, the first of which, "Cumnock Fair", initially appeared in 1999. This fretful dance fantasy's original title, "Hoodicraw Peden", refers to a 17th-century Taliban-esque zealot, the subject of an Edwin Muir poem which witheringly refers to "Burns and Scott, sham bards of a sham nation", thereby providing the titles for the concerto's remaining movements. "Shambards" mockingly quotes the waltz from the Mad Scene in Lucia di Lammermoor while the lusty violin reel that launches "Shamnation" acquires an increasingly desperate energy as it hurtles giddily towards the piano's unhinged, unnerving final flourish. [3]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 MacMillan, James (2003). "MacMillan, James: Piano Concerto No. 2". Boosey & Hawkes . Retrieved November 5, 2015.
  2. ↑ Johnson, Stephen (20 January 2012). "Macmillan: A Scotch Bestiary; Piano Concerto No. 2". BBC Music Magazine . Retrieved November 5, 2015.
  3. ↑ Achenbach, Andrew (October 2006). "MacMillan Piano Concerto No 2; (A) Scotch Bestiary". Gramophone . Retrieved November 5, 2015.
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