Concerto per Corde

Program Note by the Composer

I completed my String Quartet No. 2 in May, 1988. The quartet was commissioned by the Cleveland Quartet for their tour of the Soviet Union that autumn and toward that end was performed at numerous venues throughout that nation to gratifying public response. Having visited Moscow and Leningrad with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra the previous year, I was anxious to pay tribute to the warmth and courage of the many wonderful Soviet citizens I met, so it was with pleaseure that I dedicated the quartet "to the people of the Soviet Union." As a further act of homage, my work was based upon the D-S-C-H (D -- E-flat -- C -- B) motto which outlined Shostakovich's initials and which that composer used so tellingly in several of his major scores.

Shortly after the premiere of the quartet, several colleagues suggested that the music would also be effective in a version for string orchestra, and I was able to realize this project when Absolut Vodka commissioned the Concerto per Corde in 1990. However, I saw immediately that the quartet would need to be thoroughly reworked, and thus many changes -- some minor, some major -- to the quartet will be in evidence. Though I chose to retain the D-S-C-H framework, I made numerous small alterations (especially of tessitura) in the first movement and noticeably expanded the third movement with the addition of new material. More significantly, I felt that the quartet's second movement would not "translate" well into the string orchestra medium, and I therefore replaced it with an entirely different movement. As a result, the Concerto per Corde is not simply a rescoring of the quartet for string orchestra with a contrabass part added but rather represents a complete reevaluation -- and in some parts, recomposition -- of the original. I am content with both "versions" of the work but believe the piece in its present form gains in richness.

Cast in a tripartite form, the concerto begins with a passacaglia-like movement marked Adagio; doloroso centered loosely around D, and this is followed by a furious, virtuosic allegro molto, centered in E-flat despite its chromatic, dissonant language, which may recall Bartok to some listeners. The final movement is marked Largo; lamentoso and constitutes a set of four variations offset by a harmonic ritornello (all cast roughly in C minor) succeeded by a B major epilogue ("trasfigurato") which contains the only extended tonal music in the score. The overall mood of the work is tragic.

The Concerto per Corde was completed in Fairport, New York on May 14, 1990 and lasts approximately twenty minutes. In this version, it is dedicated to my friend Stephen Albert.

Christopher Rouse

© 1990 by Christopher Rouse
These program notes can be reproduced free of charge with the following credit:
Reprinted by kind permission of Christopher Rouse

Baltimore Sun

Stephen Wigler

"The sense of an ending is one of the most important things in the craft of music...one thing can be said about [Christopher Rouse's] work: He wrote the best ending of any work on the concert.

"In a program note, Rouse said that he had in mind "those great moments of Bruckner and Mahler, when you have this feeling of release, of the skies opening." The composer, who has paid homage to Bruckner before (in his Symphony No. 1), succeeded magnificently on this occasion. There was a sense of transfiguration, of blissful illumination...

"It is three movements played without pause, moving from a keening Shostakovichian slow movement into a ferocious neo-Bartokian scherzo and concluding with the aforementioned slow final movement with its affecting coda. Although allusions to other composers abound, this is Rouse at his best. The scherzo — with its yawps and shrieks — is murderously difficult to play, but extremely effective. At his best, Rouse is to music what Brian DePalma is (at his best) to film: No one makes a better thriller."

New York Daily News

Bill Zakariasen

"[Concerto per Corde] is dedicated to the people of the Soviet Union and especially the memory of Dmitri Shostakovich. Heartfelt and beautifully scored, this concerto proved a worthy addition to string orchestra repertory."