''Pas de Deux'' is a double concerto for

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...

, and

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

by the American composer

James Horner James Roy Horner (August 14, 1953 – June 22, 2015) was an American composer. He was known for the integration of choral and electronic elements, and for his frequent use of motifs associated with Celtic music. Horner's first film score was in ...

. The work was commissioned by the

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

brother/sister musical duo of the violinist Mari Samuelsen and the cellist Håkon Samuelsen with contributions from the A. Wilhelmsen Foundation. It was composed from 2011 through 2014 and was premiered on November 13, 2014, with Mari and Håkon accompanied by the

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is a music organisation based in Liverpool, England, that manages a professional symphony orchestra, a concert venue, and extensive programmes of learning through music. Its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmon ...

under the conductor

Vasily Petrenko Vasily Eduardovich Petrenko (russian: Васи́лий Эдуа́рдович Петре́нко; born 7 July 1976) is a Russian-British conductor. He is currently chief conductor of the European Union Youth Orchestra, music director of the Ro ...

. ''Pas de Deux'' marked Horner's first major foray into classical music since the 1980s.

Composition

''Pas de Deux'' has a duration of roughly 30 minutes and is composed in three continuous

movements Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

. The style of the piece has been compared to the music of

Gustav Holst Gustav Theodore Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite ''The Planets'', he composed many other works across a range ...

and Ralph Vaughan Williams, but the music critics Tim Ashley and Glyn Môn Hughes have also noted similarities to the works of

Henryk Górecki Henryk Mikołaj Górecki ( , ; 6 December 1933 – 12 November 2010) was a Polish composer of contemporary classical music. According to critic Alex Ross, no recent classical composer has had as much commercial success as Górecki. He became a l ...

and

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

Reception

Critical response to the work has been mixed. Reviewing the premiere, Tim Ashley of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' regarded the piece as "lushly scored" and "attractively played," but nevertheless opined that the work "outstayed its welcome." Richard Fairman of ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...

'' similarly wrote, "The music laps back and forth languidly, washing over the somnolent listener. Almost nothing happens, as if some crucial visual element is missing." Glyn Môn Hughes of ''

The Arts Desk ''The Arts Desk'' (theartsdesk.com) is a British arts journalism website containing reviews, interviews, news, and other content related to music, theatre, television, films, and other art forms written by journalists from a variety of traditio ...

'' further commented: However, the piece was more favorably reviewed by Christian Clemmensen of the website

Filmtracks.com Filmtracks.com is a modern film score review website created and maintained by its sole reviewer, Christian Clemmensen. Since the launch of Filmtracks in 1996, the website has reviewed nearly two-thousand soundtracks dating as far back as 1954, t ...

, who wrote, "The overall highlight of the concerto for Horner's enthusiasts will be the final five minutes, during which he kicks the piece into high gear for a percussively rhythmic extension of his more engaging music for films. Not surprisingly, this is where Horner's rambling chord shifts and percussive tapping dating from '' Sneakers'' to '' A Beautiful Mind'' are referenced, with the violin in a particularly powerful position to express the key shifts." He added, "Even for collectors of Horner's music, long parts of the concerto will languish in pensive understatement despite their lovely recording, and with the lack of definitive 'themes,' the lively third part may not be enough to save the whole for some. Those five minutes will merit a purchase of the whole for most listeners, however, the spirited send-off a fitting conclusive statement to Horner's career."

Discography

The premiere performance of ''Pas de Deux'' was released on disk through Mercury Classics and

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

on May 25, 2015. The disk also features renditions of Arvo Pärt's ''

Fratres ' (meaning "brothers" in Latin) is a musical work by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt exemplifying his tintinnabuli style of composition. It is three-part music, written in 1977, ''without fixed instrumentation'' and has been described as a “m ...

'',

Giovanni Sollima Giovanni Sollima (born 24 October 1962 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy) is an Italian composer and cellist. He was born into a family of musicians and studied cello with Giovanni Perriera and composition with his father, Eliodoro Sollima, at the Con ...

's ''Violoncelles, Vibrez!'', and

Ludovico Einaudi Ludovico Maria Enrico Einaudi OMRI (; born 23 November 1955) is an Italian pianist and composer. Trained at the Conservatorio Verdi in Milan, Einaudi began his career as a classical composer, later incorporating other styles and genres such as ...

's '' Divenire''. It was the first classical album to top the Norwegian album charts since 1995.

References

{{Authority control Compositions by James Horner 2014 compositions Concertos for violin and cello 21st-century classical music

Composition

Reception

Discography

See also

References