James MacMillan

Violin Concerto No 2 HPS 1815

Composed in 2021 and dedicated to the soloist Nicola Benedetti, this work was written as a memorial tribute to the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, who died the previous year and was a major musical influence on the composer, particularly during his formative creative years. MacMillan writes, "One of the co-commissioners for Violin Concerto no 2 was Polish and I was keen that there be some acknowledgment of the late Penderecki in some way in the new work. I was happy to oblige with a dedication to a composer I have greatly admired from an early age." He describes creating a new work for Nicola Benedetti: "I’ve worked with Nicola on her recording of the Mendelssohn concerto and on tour with her on the Mozart G Major concerto, and have absorbed a lot from these experiences. I composed From Ayrshire for her some years ago which is a short piece that can be performed with either piano or small orchestral accompaniment. I also wrote a short work for her and some singers of The Sixteen for the very first Cumnock Tryst festival in 2014. All this has been important in the way I have built my relationship with Nicola, and in my approach for this concerto." Adopting a more compact format than MacMillan’s first violin concerto from 2009, the second employs a medium-sized orchestra and plays continuously in a single through-composed movement of 25 minutes' duration.