Concerto for Orchestra

Year: 2014

Genre: Orchestral

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Movement Titles:
I. Tempo giusto
II. Moderato con forza
III. L'istesso tempo
IV. Lento
V. Allegrezza
VI. Doloroso
VII. Presto

First Performance:
20 November 2014
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
Vasily Petrenko, conducting
Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
Liverpool, England

Instrumentation: 3.3.3.3—4.3.2.1—Timp.Perc=3—Hp—Strings

Duration: 25'

Recording: concerto for orchestra

Listen now: CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA (click here to listen)

Press Quotes:
This was a lively piece, something which gave much to the orchestra and to which the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, under chief conductor Vasily Petrenko, responded with some considerable gusto...the fact that the audience really seemed to appreciate a new work — and the applause was enthusiastic, not just polite — might just be saying something. For this was a large-scale piece which was new, and which worked, and which players and audience liked. And what’s wrong with that? —The Arts Desk

...it is user-friendly, buzzing with syncopated energy and enticingly orchestrated. It is also superbly crafted: nearly half an hour of music spun out of a four-note motif heard on trumpet at the start. —The Times (of London)

Torke has a distinctly American orchestral accent: transparent, Philip Glass-like textures tussled with the infectious shimmy of Bernstein in mambo mode...—The Guardian

...absorbing set of continuous variations, inspiring in their fertility —American Record Guide

...among the many versions of this form out there, Torke’s is a very worthwhile addition. I found this work very entertaining and well structured. —Daniel Coombs, Audiophile Audition
 

Program Note:
A motto of four notes is heard from the trumpets at the very beginning. No new theme is ever introduced in the course of seven movements and twenty‐two minutes of music. Yet each point of the piece sounds different—the music is an array of colors, moods, and speeds. Nor could the form be called, theme and variations. It is a tapestry that weaves the invariant motto through a broad range of contexts. This unification of means is meant to deliver cohesion and yet, paradoxically, the limitation nevertheless affords a wider expression, since once bound by the guiding principle of the motto, the imagination tends to run loose.