Chamber Concerto No. 3
(1966) Chamber Ensemble
Duration: 24 minutes
for clarinet, bassoon, horn, 2 violins, viola, cello and bass
Commissioned by the Anglo-Austrian Music Society for the Melos Ensemble.

World Premiere:  16 October 1967, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Melos Ensemble

Publisher:  Chester Music Ltd

Critical Acclaim:

...Although a display piece, the concerto is also much more...it is serious-minded and intense in expression. It is a masterly work, difficult but rewarding to the players, and intriguing and stimulating to hear.
— Malcolm Rayment. Glasgow Herald

...the single movement Concerto combines wit, romance, drama, dissonance, rhythmic vitality and a broad spectrum of dynamic color in a neatly continuous 25-minute whole. The fact that thematic materials derive from spellings of names of Viennese composers seems only a contrivance in the telling.
— Melody Peterson. Los Angeles Times

Composer's Note:

This work, dedicated to Nadia Boulanger for her 80th birthday, is conceived as a virtuosic piece and includes sections and cadenzas where different players take a leading role, momentarily dominating and directing the others. There are five movements played without a break, framed by a very short Dedicatio and Envoi.

The Dedicatio is a simple presentation of very short melodic motives, which spell out the names of the composers of both first and second Viennese Schools. As in the Berg Chamber Concerto, just those initials which correspond to a musical note are used, taking account of the fact that H (in German notation) is B-natural, and S or Es is E-flat: HAyDn: mozArt: BEEtHovEn: SCHuBErt: ArnolD SCHönBErG: Anton wEBErn: AlBAn BErG.

The first movement consists of two strongly contrasted ideas which interact — a vigorous, dissonant allegro for strings, and an andante declamando for wind. A cadenza for the first violin based on the HAyDn-mozArt motive forms a transition to the second movement — a scherzo fantastico. Here the clarinet becomes more and more dominating and the movement culminates in a wild cadenza for clarinet based on the BEEtHovEn motive.

The central slow movement starts very quietly on a soft, low pitched chord. Gradually the SCHuBErt and ArnolD SCH(ö)nBErG motives emerge leading to a cadenza for horn and viola. After a climax the movement ends quietly as it began.

The bassoon and double bass dominate the fourth movement — a grotesque scherzo, the double bass playing the Anton wEBErn motive. The cello joins in with a slow, expressive theme and the movement grows to a climax. At the end the second violin crowns the texture with the AlBAn BErG motive in a high register.

The final movement is a multiple cadenza. It consists almost entirely of previously heard material but now in new juxtapositions. Piercing through the texture, each instrument reiterates the melodic motive that has been associated with it. In the very short Envoi the soft low-pitched chord from the slow movement returns, and over it the cello, in pizzicato notes, spells out the composer's name: tHEA muSGrAvE.

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