Showpiece (Concertino No.4)

Showpiece was written over the turn of 1982-3 at once as a celebration for the 40th anniversary of the Society for the Promotion of New Music, and as a genial vehicle for the collective and individual virtuosity of the London Sinfonietta. It is in fact a miniature concerto for orchestra; and I often had the particular player’s style and physical presence in mind when writing.

There are three sections, played without a break. The first (allegro vigoroso) is a kind of concerto grosso movement, with many returns to the opening ritornello (never quite the same), each one setting off a brief characteristic solo for every instrument in turn (except the piano and the percussion who are the texture’s "continuo").

The second (andante molto) again has a solo for each player; this time a free improvisatory line set against a background of mechanical repeat-patterns held together, as they pass from family to family, by a percussion continuo-continuum. The piano rests, but is given a moment of display in a cadenza before the tutti close. The third section begins by returning to the opening ritornello but very soon takes a different course; the piece ends in flutters and fireworks (increasingly evanescent apart from one explosion) that have no thematic connexion with what has gone before.

Robin Holloway, 1983

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This programme note can be reproduced free of charge in concert programmes with a credit to the composer