Joseph Horovitz

Euphonium Concerto

The three movement structure reflects a classical outlook concerning concertos. Traditionally, this design favours the listener, first in the head, then the heart and finally in the toes. In the first movement, the soloist combines clear strong phrases with gentle melismatic meandering as well as negotiating many acute-angled leaps which justify themselves by enharmonic changes beneath. The slow movement has a long main melody and contains the only cadenza element in the work: two pastoral passages, homage to the mysteriously beautiful Border Country. The finale opens with a driving, motoric introduction followed by a cheeky rondo theme. Repeated quotations of this are elaborated with increasingly intricate variations until an unaccompanied whole-tone version of the theme brings the work to a fast close.