Clarinet Concerto (Sky Blue) (2014)

This concerto for clarinet and orchestra is approximately eight minutes long. It was composed especially for Alison Hughes (clarinettist) and the University of Sussex Symphony Orchestra. Clarinet Concerto (Sky Blue) is inspired by a painting of the same name made in 1940 by Wassily Kandinsky in which figures appear to float free across a clear blue sky. The painting has been described (by Mona Molarsky, 2009) as 'an ethereal, Miró-like confection with biomorphic squiggles that buzz like glimmering insects in the afternoon sun'. The music is a continuous single movement with moments of harmonic transparency contrasting with sections of greater modal complexity. There are some sections which also feature soloists in the orchestra, perhaps like the free-floating figures in Kandinsky's painting.