Concerto for Two Violas and Orchestra
20:00
2019
Commissioned by Matthew Aubin and the Jackson Symphony Orchestra
Instrumentation:
2 Solo Violas – 2, 2d1, 0, 1 – 2, 2, 0, 0 – hpd – str
The Double Viola Concerto was written in 2019 for Mitsuru Kubo, Clyde McKaney, Matthew Aubin and the Jackson Symphony Orchestra. It is a Neo-Baroque companion piece to the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 BWV 1051 by J.S. Bach. The piece employs the concerto grosso format, with each instrument in the orchestra brought alongside the violas into the soloist light intermittently. In the first movement Crosmer alludes to the structures and patterns which make the Brandenburg Concertos such genius masterpieces: imitation, canon, inversion and retrograde. The middle, slow movement grows out of the Baroque box to build an overflowing emotional peak. Finally, the piece ends with a light-hearted gigue reminiscent of the final movement of the Bach.