Le Petit Poème de 1909, nous propose (lui aussi) une structure en trois parties. Les parties extrêmes s'articulent autour d'un thème très simple qui s'enrichira de multiples imitations canoniques. Quant a à la partie centrale, elle surprend tout d'abord par son motif rythmique en ostinato exposé par le violon et l'altoà l'unisson ou a l'octave, puis par des harmonies très curieuses, le piano reprenant le motif rythmique dans le grave tandis que les cordes énoncent en mineur quelques bribes du thème initial. / Violon, Alto Et Piano

For Violin Viola and Piano (Reduced from the orchestra version). Britten was so remarkably prolific as a young composer that many of the works from his teens were put aside to await revision or completion as he rushed on tothe next piece. This was particularly the case around the time of his Opus 1 Sinfonietta composed in the summer of 1932 his second year as a student at the Royal College Of Music.The Sinfonietta waswritten (in less than three weeks) very soon after Britten had completed the first draft of the Double Concerto; but after finishing the Sinfonietta he went back to revise the Concerto's second movement. He started workon his Op.2 Phantasy for Oboe and String Trio a few weeks later.Although the Concerto follows the same three-movement pattern as the Sinfonietta it is more ambitious in scale; and since the sketchis unusually for Britten complete in practically every detail it is puzzling that he never made a full score of the work after finishing the composition and seems to have made no attempt to get it performed. It is not clear ifhe had particular performers in mind (he was of course a Viola player although he is not likely to have intended the part for himself). He showed the work to his composition teacher at the college John Ireland who as Brittenrecorded in his diary was 'pretty pleased' with it; but it is distinctly possible that his experience in rehearsing the Sinfonietta with a student orchestra in 1932 ('I have never heard such an appalling row!' readsanother diary entry) discouraged him from going on to complete the Double Concerto in score. He was not to hear any of his orchestral works until the first performance of Our Hunting Fathers in 1936.In theabsence of Britten's full score it was necessary for me to prepare the work from the sketch. But the instrumentation is so carefully indicated in the draft that the resulting score is not far from being 100% Britten - only between

traces lointains' vient près au genre du trio piano d'une manière inhabituelle, car le violoncelle a été remplacé par un alto. Créé pour un concert à Hambourg en souvenir de son professeur de composition ancien György Ligeti, décédé en 2006, le titre anglais peut être pris littéralement : comme une lointaine recherche de traces mis en musique. / Violon, Alto Et Piano