Hopkins Concerto Grosso 1 World Premiere

Michael Hopkins composed this piece between November 2007 and April 2008 for this performance by the Burlington Chamber Orchestra on May 10, 2008. It is scored for the traditional Concerto Grosso instrumentation of 2 violin soloists and 1 cello soloist combined with a larger group of strings. The piece begins with a grand, majestic opening featuring a sweeping
melodic contour. This leads directly into an Allegro, that features a pulsing, rhythmic motion of the inner voices, contrasting with sustained notes in the bass and violin solos. A syncopated bass line enters, while the inner voices continue the rhythmic pulsing and the soloists play broad sustained lines. Part 1 ends suddenly and abruptly.
Part 2 opens with a lyrical Adagio, constructed over a 12-tone row ground bass line. The Adagio leads directly into an Allegro that features the low strings on the melodic material while the upper strings play rhythmically propulsive figures. The music builds to
a frenetic climax returning to thematic ideas from the introduction, and then ends with one final return of the ground bass line in a quiet slow conclusion.

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