Concerto for Viola and Orchestra

The Russian-Israeli composer Benjamin Yusupov combines his greatest successes with his concert compositions. The result is concertos for flute, viola, cello and a piano concerto, at the premiere of which he himself appeared as a soloist. One could almost describe the individual works as parts of a cycle, as they show similarities in their compositional structure and the relationship between solo instrument and orchestra. Three of these concerts are dedicated to outstanding instrumentalists: the flautist Matthias Ziegler, the violinist and violist Maxim Vengerov and the most recent piece in this series to the cellist Misha Maisky. The dedicatees and their playing techniques, which Yusupov studied closely, sometimes also influenced the character of the compositions. Maxim Vengerov, Misha Maisky and others with whom he worked were first-class masters, Yusupov once declared. “Such a collaboration between composer and soloist can make an important contribution and also represents a challenge for the composer. After all, what would Alfred Schnittke be without Gidon Kremer and Gennady Rozhdestvensky or Giya Kantscheli without Dshansug Kachidze?”

Many of these concertos have long since been adopted by other soloists into their repertoire. This is the viola concerto that violist David Aaron Carpenter performed with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra on 11/12. It had its Swiss premiere in June 2008 in Lucerne.

As an introduction, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra wrote at the time:

“In his viola concerto, Benjamin Yusupov combines metal rock, electric guitar, classical-baroque musical forms, oriental sounds, bandoneon and tango rhythms into a common, holistic language. But that's not all: David Aaron Carpenter will not only play his viola, often in extremely high registers, but he will also perform a fiery tango at the end, together with an extremely charming partner Mariana Fresno.