Night Music

Penri-Evans, David

About the work

The piece was commissioned by the Louisiana Sinfonietta in 1984, and first performed by them . The opening is slow, gradually building up in waves; this leads to the second section which features a violin solo over a suspended background. The middle section builds into a dance involving the whole orchestra. The thematic material for this is derived from fragments presented earlier. The dance dies down and we return to the violin solo like a voice in the night. There is a recapitulation of the opening, ending in a chord which combines major and minor, the simultaneous joy and pain of love.

First Performance: Louisiana Sinfonietta, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, February 1985.