Description

ICE CONCERTO (2018), for violin solo and percussion ensemble, is an attempt in doing something decidedly different from my current, timbre and materiality-based practice focusing on the concrete and noisy physicality of live performance. In contrast, this is ritualistic, exorcist-like and pitch-driven MUSIC that nevertheless keeps its cool distance, exhibiting an inevitable processual drive of a nature event. Yet this rhythmically melting spectral drama is lived through the eyes of a virtuoso protagonist made of oxygen and hydrogen under varying degrees of warmth—from glacial stillness to dancing vapor and, finally, fatally dripping liquid. This is a piece born from a need to write something ‘musical’ yet ‘macabre’ in a time of increasing climate anxiety. Music composed in freezing, social democratic-green Helsinki winter—to be premiered in balmy Florida spring of the Trump-era. Dedicated to the inspiring musicality of violin artista Sini Virtanen, who commissioned the work for her and the magnificent McCormick Percussion Group of the University of South Florida in Tampa directed by Robert McCormick. Their dedication to bringing this piece to life and recording has left me with deep admiration and gratitude.

- Jarkko Hartikainen

Instrumentation

vln solo, 8perc

Category

Chamber Works

Premiere

8 April 2018 at the USF New-Music Festival at University of South Florida, Tampa, FL (USA) by Sini Virtanen, violin, and the McCormick Percussion Group conducted by Robert McCormick

Commisioned by / dedications

Written for Sini Virtanen and the McCormick Percussion Group, conducted by Robert McCormick

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More

• Listen to ICE CONCERTO on Spotify
• Album with Jarkko Hartikainen's "Ice Concerto" wins Global Music Awards gold

Archive number

MF33192

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