Ian Wilson
An Angel Serves a Small Breakfast
Short instrumentation: 0 0 0 0 - 4 2 3 0 - perc(2), hp, str
Duration: 19'
Dedication: for Rebecca Hirsch
Solos:
violin
Instrumentation details:
1st horn in F
2nd horn in F
3rd horn in F
4th horn in F
1st trumpet in D
2nd trumpet in D
1st trombone
2nd trombone
bass trombone
1st percussion
2nd percussion
harp
violin I
violin II
viola
violoncello
contrabass
Wilson - An Angel Serves a Small Breakfast for violin and orchestra
Sample pages
Audio preview
Work introduction
Ian Wilson’s latest CD, Winter finding, has just been released on the RTÉ Lyric fm label. Gerhard Markson and David Porcelijn conduct the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. The works included are an angel serves a small breakfast (1999, violin soloist Rebecca Hirsch), Man-o’-War (2001), Licht/ung (2004) and Winter finding (2004/5).
Andrew Clements writes in the Guardian, “After recent discs of Ian Wilson's string quartets and works for string orchestra, this strikingly well-performed collection shows the northern Irishman working with a much more vivid instrumental palette. ... Perhaps the most impressive work, though, is the earliest – the violin concerto from 1999, in which the irrepressibly lyrical solo line unravels like a bundle of threads as it weaves through the orchestral textures; the idea is wonderfully sustained and generates music of great beauty.”
In the Irish Times, Michael Dervan writes that Man-o'-War “unleashes orchestral violence with the abandon of Edgard Varèse” and praises the “strong performances from the NSO”.