THREE DANCES
for solo violin and orchestra (2025)
Commissioned by Johann Strauss 2025 Wien
First performed on 25th October 2025 by Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra conducted by Manfred Honeck.
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Copyright © 2025 by Decca Publishing, a division of Decca Music Group Limited, London
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Instruments
2 Flutes (2nd also Piccolo)
2 Oboes
2 Clarinets
2 Bassoons
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6 Horns in F
2 Trumpets
2 Trombones
Bass Trombone
Tuba
Timpani
3 Percussions
1. Vibraphone, Bass Drum, Marimba
2. Glockenspiel, Kick Drum, Tam-tam
3. Crotales, Suspended Cymbal
Piano
Celesta
2 Harps
Solo Violin
12 Violins I
10 Violins II
8 Violas
8 Violoncellos
6 Contrabasses
Program note
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Brahms is the soul of Vienna, Strauss is her perfume
The Waltz lands in the 19th century as a radical and disruptive form, scandalous in the proximity required of the dancing bodies, the intoxicating sensorial effects of the continuous circling movements, and the frank emphasis on physicality.
In the “Three Dances” I wanted to avoid writing a work that pastiches Strauss music; this area having been amply explored by Ravel in “La Valse” and my own teacher, Berio in the second movement of the “Sinfonia”, but rather to respond to the Waltz as a psychological project, and to the principle of “dance music” in a broader sense.
Like all music for dancing, whether the EDM of our time or the folkloric historical traditions, the waltz is founded on repeated rhythmic patterns, and it is this common principle I’ve tried to explore in various ways in my new work.
The first movement “Circles in Circles” presents a glittering landscape of overlapping shifting patterns propelled by a repeating bass line. The second movement is like a super slow motion shot in a movie, where the dancing protagonists make eye contact and know, in that moment, that their lives will be forever changed; a split second that seems to last forever. The third movement explores different perspectives on familiar rhythmic materials as a way to encounter them as if for the first time.
I offer this work in the spirit of admiration for Strauss’s work, which still holds such a strong appeal for us, all these years later. When Strauss’s wife Adele asked Brahms to autograph her fan, he wrote for her not some music of his own, as was customary, but the first few notes of the “Blue Danube” waltz, adding the comment “unfortunately, NOT by Johannes Brahms.”
Max Richter