I honestly believe this is one of the major violin concertos of our time. Unmissable.
– Colin Clarke
The World Premiere of Helen Grime’s Violin Concerto has been released as a new digital EP from OUR Recordings. Live from Berwald Hallen was recorded on 15 December 2016 in Stockholm with violinist Malin Broman and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Harding.
The composer writes, “My Violin Concerto came about after several collaborations with Malin Broman and many years of gestation… I was immediately struck by the ferocity, power and passion in her playing. At turns she is able to play with a sort of wild abandon but also with great tenderness, sensitivity and with many different colours. I knew when we started talking about the piece some years back, that I wanted to highlight and showcase these striking, opposing qualities. Violent, virtuosic music covering the whole range of the violin is contrasted with more delicate and reflective filigree material that features oscillating natural harmonic passages and searching melodies.”
Since the premiere in 2016, the violinist Leila Josefowicz has also championed the piece and performed it in six countries. Meanwhile, Helen Grime’s orchestral oeuvre has grown ever richer in the past decade; her recent song cycle Folk with libretto by Zoe Gilbert (based on her book of the same name) recently won the prize for Best Orchestral Composition at the 2025 Ivors Classical Awards.
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