A work for solo violin and orchestra commissioned by Donald McDonald for the 21st birthday of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the 60th birthday of the composer. It was first performed in November 1993 in Glasgow by JamesClark and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Maxwell Davies.The spell is one quoted by George Mackay Brown in his book An Orkney Tapestry: 'Let not plough be put to acre except a fiddle cross first the furrow.'Davies's dancing concerto imagines the fiddler following a route from field to field from dance to dance accompanied by a bunch of companions in the form of an orchestra. As the music goes on so it gets brighter and livelier moving from the dark colouring of clarinets bassoons and strings to full ensemble with prominent brass and (solo) tuned percussion as if the dancers as much as the fields were beginning to glow with new life.Score(miniature). Duration c. 20mins.

The Violin Concerto was commissioned by Stiftung Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival. It was first performed by Gidon Kremer (violin) and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchester conducted by DennisRussell Davies at the Musikhalle Hamburg Germany on 29 August 2003. Interpolated within this one-minute-one-movement layout is a recurrent refrain where the soloist articulates one of the basic harmonic foundations of anumber of the one minute sections (six dominant 7ths - on E F sharp C A B D) in an undisguised Bachian fashion. The slow arpeggios in the later variants of the refrain not unexpectedly find themselves sharing a bed with theopening of Berg's Violin Concerto. Nyman has effectively adopted Berg's orchestral template with two exceptions - the omission of the alto Saxophone and replaced Berg's Percussion section with Marimba and Vibraphone mallet instruments which intertwine with the soloist in the Concerto. Alban Berg's Violin Concerto was dedicated to 'the memory of an angel' Manon Gropius. Nyman's Concerto was dedicated to the memory of DanielToscan du Plantier a friend and neighbour - in Nyman's words 'certainly no angel but a major figure in the recording and film industries'. Arranged for solo Violin and Piano accompaniment the duration of thiswork is approximately: 25 minutes.

Score. The title of the work relates to its form which consists of two structurally independent strands. Sections within each strand begin and end at different times. Chain 2 is in 4 movements: AD LIBITUM; A BATTUTA; ADLIBITUM; A BATTUTA - AD LIBITUM - A BATTUTAIn the AD LIBITUM movements the element of chance plays a part within fixed parameters.

reconstructed by Philip Wilby-This reconstruction of the Concerto in D K.315f was first performed on 15th August 1985 at the Dartington Hall Summer School of Music by Ernst Kovacic (Violin) and Bernard Roberts (Piano) with the Dartington Chamber Orchestraconducted by Diego Masson. This is the Study Score. Instrumentation includes SOLO VIOLIN; SOLO PIANO; 2 FLUTES; 2 OBOES; 2 HORNS IN D AND G; 2 TRUMPETS; TIMPANI; STRINGS.The duration of this work is 25 minutes. Full score solo and orchestral parts are available on hire from the publishers.