M. Berkeley: Organ Concerto

Description

This work is seen as marking a turning point in the composer's music. The writing includes distinctive harmonic clusters breaking into great upward sweeps, buzzing (often menacing) mobiles under carefully controlled melodic lines, inventive timbres, and above all, a heightened sense of drama.

Michael Berkeley writes: The concerto is not a concerto in the conventional sense, but is, more than anything else, a work of "ritual", inspired by my impressionistic days as a chorister at Westminster Cathedral, and in particular, the liturgy of Easter: the bringing of light after the darkness of Lent. The music begins with three trumpets quietly chanting out a phase - the bearers of light. The Orchestra flickers, and the flame finally catches, but it is ultimately used destructively. Thematically the music is derived from the opening call on the trumpets and the contrasting string phrase that occurs after the first climax. There is also a quotation from one of my motets which is particularly pertinent to Easter. It describes the three denials of Judas, which arrive like "diatonic lies" when set against the less specific language of the rest of the work. This chorale-like music is heard first on the violas and 'cello, next on brass. The actual writing for organ is very much concerned with texture. The instrument weaves in and out of the orchestra, sometimes complementing, sometimes contrasting ideas with it. On another level, it plays a role of overwhelming power.

The piece is in a single movement, which rises and dies like a fire, leaving the trumpets playing the open chant in retrograde amongst the dying embers of the orchestra.