Digital performance of Nico Muhly´s Shrink, Concerto for Violin and Strings performed by Pekka Kuusisto and Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. This work features on NCO’s most recent album: ​‘First Light’ on Pentatone.
Performance of Nico Muhly´s Shrink, Concerto for Violin and Strings, live recorded in Universitetets Aula, Oslo, March 2019.

Performers:
Pekka Kuusisto, violin
Norwegian Chamber Orchestra

Violinist and Artistic Director Pekka Kuusisto together with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra present the European premiere performance of acclaimed New York composer Nico Muhly’s violin concerto, Shrink, a work written especially for Kuusisto.

Muhly is one of today’s most celebrated classical composers with works spanning instrumental, orchestral and choral music, to film music and opera, being the youngest composer ever commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera.

His concerto for violin and strings, Shrink, was co-commissioned by the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. The Concerto is dedicated to Pekka Kuusisto and received its European premiere in this concert in Oslo, March 2019.

Muhly writes about the work:

​“Shrink (Concerto for Violin and Strings) is in three movements. Each movement obsesses over certain intervals: the first, ninths; the second, sevenths; and the final, a tiny set of anxious intervals between unisons and fourths. The overall structure suggests an intensifying focus on these small building-blocks, a process that is reflected in the speed of each movement. The first proceeds quickly, becomes aggressive, and dissolves into small fragments. The second movement is slow and taut, with a looped sequence of chords whose character becomes increasingly thick and heavy. The last movement is fast, nervous, and scattered, with occasional giant unisons coming in and out of focus.”

Tickets: £5 standard, or £6 ticket bundle (limited special offer for first 150 ticket buyers, then increases to £8) includes digitally signed album cover NFT and 25% album discount code
Time: 19:00 BST (available in a range of timezones)
Length: approx 30 minutes (includes an interview with Pekka)