Schnelzer, Albert: Violin Concerto No. 2, “Nocturnal Songs” (2018)
Albert Schnelzer
born 3 June 1972 in Värmland, Sweden
Premiere:
11 April 2018 by Ilya Gringolts, violin, the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra conducted by Gerard Korsten
CD recording:
Nov. 2019 by Ilya Gringolts
Capturing a feeling of weightlessness, of floating, a state between wakefulness and sleep – according to Swedish composer Albert Schnelzer (born 1972), this is the task of the music in this
violin concerto, which he calls ‘Nocturnal Songs’. Music in general should therefore capture and trigger very specific feelings.
‘I write the music that I myself want to hear. That's all there is to it. When I listen to something I've composed and feel a strong, positive emotion, then I trust that the music has a kind
of intrinsic quality’ (Albert Schnelzer). He wants to share his ‘sound cosmos’ with others and is delighted when many people resonate with his music. Schnelzer's music is outgoing and openly
communicative, sometimes even almost dance-like. One could speak of a kind of expanded minimalism, says Tony Lundman of the Swedish Music Information Centre: ‘It is tonally anchored music, and in
addition to his penchant for repetition and “riffing”, which suggests rock influences, almost dreamy elements can be detected in the quieter, lyrically expressive moments of his
music.’
Albert Schnelzer also gained recognition early on in his career as a composer. Today, he is considered one of Sweden's best-known composers. He started out in his youth as a keyboard player in a rock band. His works are now performed internationally far beyond Sweden, including orchestral works such as ‘A Freak in Burbank’ (2007) and ‘Burn My Letters – Remembering Clara’ (2019). His second violin concerto, composed in 2018, was premiered by one of today's finest violinists, Ilya Gringolts, and is considered by critics to be multi-layered, accessible and brilliant.
Schnelzer himself writes about his violin concerto:
"Levitate, the first movement, is actually an attempt to capture the feeling of floating freely in space. The other three movements have similar starting points – the dreamlike, the intangible.
The inspiration for the second movement, Bal des Ardents (“Ball of the Burning Men”), came from a painting depicting a masked ball in Paris in 1393. When a fire breaks out, some of the dancers
are engulfed by the flames, but the musicians continue to play. The third movement is based on a dream I had in which a series of strange imaginary animals form a stately procession. I don't know
why the animals have gathered or where they are going. In the final movement, I try to capture the feeling of wanting to run away or flee in a dream – no matter how hard you try, in the end you
just tread water and don't get anywhere.”
Listen here:
Movement 1: Levitate. Largo e molto tranquillo (7 ½ min.)
Movement 2: Bal des Ardents. Moderato con spirito e leggiero (4 ½ min.)
Movement 3: Procession. Adagio e triste e malinconico (7 min.)
Movement 4: Run. Vivace furioso (6 ½ min.)
Listening companion:
I. Levitate. Largo e molto tranquillo
Floating freely, high brass and strings quietly begin to open up a space. The wind instruments quickly fade into the background, while the strings remain pianissimo on the high note they
introduced, until the solo violin quietly begins a long melody centred around the high A. Moving down a second and then up a second, the violin melody slowly moves over the delicate soundscape
and glides quietly down to a reverberating vibraphone sound.
After this brief interruption, the solo violin continues to float and rises upwards over two renewed vibraphone orchestral entries. In the low violas, however, upward-pushing triplets begin to
rumble and lead the orchestra to a first rhythmic climax, forcing the solo violin to use octave chords to assert itself.
After a brief pause by the orchestra, however, the violin begins to play its drawn-out melody again as if liberated, with great ease over an invigorating rock-like accompaniment.
As if the music has found itself, it swells and subsides, allowing the violin to melodiously follow its path. After five swells and subsides of the overall sound – interspersed with the solo
violin's excited search for its melody – the drive exhausts itself, leaving only the solo violin to float quietly above the passing, its high A lingering.
A strange rhythmic figure in the strings accompanies the remnants of the violin's legato melody for a long time until it finally fades away.
II. Bal des Ardents. Moderato con spirito e leggiero
The piece begins with a brief startle. A fanfare from the entire orchestra gives way to a 5/8 time signature, which the solo violin immediately picks up. The listener is instantly carried away,
following the strangely limping dance of the violin. Devilish double stops from the solo violin captivate the audience. The orchestra repeatedly interrupts with booming forte
climaxes.
A second, drawn-out theme on the violin is also rhythmically marked and has something seductive and unreal about it. After a varied, virtuoso solo performance, the entire orchestra takes over the
violin's opening theme in full tutti.
Suddenly, the solo violin stands alone with its 5/4 time signature, and only gradually do the orchestral instruments join in with the second theme in a kind of development.
As the solo violin is increasingly left alone by the orchestra, it stubbornly continues to play in virtuoso pizzicato style, regardless of what is happening around it, and after a brief
orchestral tutti, launches into a kind of solo cadenza.
The solo violin then starts again and brings in its opening theme, now quietly and hesitantly. The orchestra joins in again, driving the music forward, and this limping, dissonant dance is led to
a ghostly, brilliant conclusion.
III. Procession. Adagio e triste e malinconico
A drum roll at the beginning, then striding bass pizzicatos: dark sounds build up. From this dark soundscape, the solo violin can slowly be heard on D to striding vibraphone strokes – its
melody, with its long legato second steps, is reminiscent of the theme of the first movement.
Above the advancing vibraphone rhythms of an unreal-seeming procession, a bass clarinet joins the melody of the solo violin with long solo notes. Then a flute, then an oboe, and finally a horn
replace the bass clarinet and counterpoint the melody of the solo violin.
Once again, the bass pizzicatos take over the striding accompaniment, with only the strings supporting the violin as it plays on the G string.
As the violin's melody rises, the orchestra also builds to an excessive climax.
After a sudden break in the sound, the violin remains alone in the void during a cadence until the striding sounds of the vibraphone rejoin it and the violin finds its way back to its melody.
Slowly, this imaginary procession fades away into the dark sound of the strings.
IV. Run. Vivace furioso
Hunted by three violent drumbeats, the violin rushes into its ‘run’ in alarm. Its running theme rushes forward under constant further orchestral and drumbeats, striking like a hammer.
After a period of calm, the solo violin finds a lyrical second theme, but the drumbeats return. The chase continues.
After a solo run by the violin, the orchestra unexpectedly begins the lyrical theme, seeming to give the violin some breathing space. But when the violin returns to its lyrical theme, the
drumbeats strike again and the orchestra even takes over the violin's first run theme in tutti, finally chasing the violin into a long cadenza in which the violin becomes entangled in its themes,
lonely and almost to the point of dissolution.
When the orchestra reappears as a floating soundscape, the violin seems to feel stressed and plunges into frenzied sixteenth-note runs. While the floating soundscape of the orchestra once again
captures a state between wakefulness and sleep, as in the first movement, the violin seems to flee, as if haunted, from being caught up at last.