Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 2

Glass’ Second Violin Concerto (2009) is a Minimalist reflection on a Baroque masterpiece. The work is subtitled “The American Four Seasons”, and is modelled on Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, composed around 1720. The violinist Robert McDuffie, long a devotee of Glass’ First Violin Concerto (1987), approached the composer with the idea of composing a sequel, a companion piece to the Vivaldi. The composer and violinist were unable to agree on which season is represented in each movement, so they resolved to let the listener decide. In place of cadenzas, Glass wrote a “Prologue” and three “Song” movements, unaccompanied solos that appear through the work. In the main movements, a synthesiser imitates the Baroque harpsichord and arpeggio figures in the strings also relate back to Vivaldi’s orchestral textures. McDuffie requested a highly virtuosic solo part, which Glass provides. He also asked for a “kick-ass” ending, and Glass delivers that too, a frenzied toccata that grows in intensity through the composer’s trademark swirling string textures.