Programme Notes – Valse Nocturne

Valse Nocturne is an arrangement for viola and piano of the second movement of a viola concerto that I wrote for Martin Outram who premiered it with the Docklands Sinfonietta in 1992. The mood of the works starts out as sombre and shadowy. A twelve-tone theme in the piano is answered by its inversion in the viola. The tone becomes more aggressive before melting into a cadenza section with the viola arpeggiating over ethereal bells in the piano which brings the piece to a bright and unexpected end.