Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Niels Marthinsen
Tubakoncert (1994)
(Tuba Concerto)- Edition Wilhelm Hansen Copenhagen (World)
Programme Note
My Tuba Concerto was composed as a commission from the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra at the request of Jens Bjørn-Larsen, one of the best tuba players in this country and even the world.
I have certainly not made it easy for him! The work has a most difficult solo part, both technically and musically. It takes a strong physique to deliver one long legato phrase after another in the highest registers of the tuba and a mental weight is required to be able to cope with the artistic challenges of the concerto. I have tried to liberate the tuba from its usual soloistic role as a slightly overweight gentleman in the low register without, mind you, transforming him into a kind of buffoon with a potbelly. In the hands of the right man the tuba is able to achieve a tremendous espressivo, precisely because of its size.
Each of the three movements of the concerto shows the soloist in a new role.
The first movement, adagio appassionato, is a long, organic and freely shaped sermon (Old Testament-esque in its style) given by the soloist. The orchestra plays as if replying in the manner of an ecstatic congregation. In the middle movement it is the tuba that stands at attention whilst the orchestra play a distorted 'karate blow' march, which the soloist gradually incorporates and makes his own. Both these movements are really preludes to the finale of the concerto. In a long (and again slow) movement, we are taken through a strange landscape steeped in velvet dark light and are witnesses to some strange occurrences. The concerto ends as it started: in the depths.
My concerto for tuba and orchestra is dedicated to Jens.
- Niels Marthinsen
I have certainly not made it easy for him! The work has a most difficult solo part, both technically and musically. It takes a strong physique to deliver one long legato phrase after another in the highest registers of the tuba and a mental weight is required to be able to cope with the artistic challenges of the concerto. I have tried to liberate the tuba from its usual soloistic role as a slightly overweight gentleman in the low register without, mind you, transforming him into a kind of buffoon with a potbelly. In the hands of the right man the tuba is able to achieve a tremendous espressivo, precisely because of its size.
Each of the three movements of the concerto shows the soloist in a new role.
The first movement, adagio appassionato, is a long, organic and freely shaped sermon (Old Testament-esque in its style) given by the soloist. The orchestra plays as if replying in the manner of an ecstatic congregation. In the middle movement it is the tuba that stands at attention whilst the orchestra play a distorted 'karate blow' march, which the soloist gradually incorporates and makes his own. Both these movements are really preludes to the finale of the concerto. In a long (and again slow) movement, we are taken through a strange landscape steeped in velvet dark light and are witnesses to some strange occurrences. The concerto ends as it started: in the depths.
My concerto for tuba and orchestra is dedicated to Jens.
- Niels Marthinsen