2007

for violin, cello, piano and orchestra

By:

• Michael Williams

Instrumentation:

2222; 22; timp.; perc.; str. with solo violin, solo cello, and solo piano

Contents:

1. Fantasy; 2. Prelude and Passacaglia; 3. Reprise

Samples

Score (260k)

Page 1 - 4

© Michael F. Williams

Availability

• This work has 3 scores and a recording

Programme Note

The title of this work Convergence, occurred to me only after it was complete and it relates primarily to the second movement, which opens with a prelude that introduces somewhat pointillistic musical elements that eventually “converge” into a Passacaglia.

There are three main sections in this work. The first two could be described as “movements” and the third a reprise of the Fantasy but substantially altered. Much of this piece is composed using a system of note clusters in a somewhat tonal environment, but Passacaglia inhabits more familiar territory.

The two cadenzas in this work are for the solo strings, the cello cadenza is in the first movement and the violin’s is at the end of the Passacaglia. It seemed unnecessary and perhaps arbitrary to write a piano cadenza – there being a number of occasions where the piano has fairly virtuosic solo passages.

Michael Williams

Commissioned:

Commissioned by the New Zealand Chamber Soloists and Opus Orchestra

Dedication:

for the New Zealand Chamber Soloists and Opus Orchestra

Performance History

	13 Sep 2008	Performed by the New Zealand Chamber Soloists, Lara Hall (violin), Katherine Austin (piano) and James Tennant (cello) with Opus Orchestra conducted by Peter Walls at the Rotorua Concert Chamber, Rotorua
		New Zealand Chamber Soloists    Peter Walls
	14 Sep 2008	Performed by the New Zealand Chamber Soloists, Lara Hall (violin), Katherine Austin (piano) and James Tennant (cello) with Opus Orchestra conducted by Peter Walls at the Gallagher Concert Chamber, Hamilton
		New Zealand Chamber Soloists    Peter Walls
	27 May 2009	Performed by Lara Hall at Gallagher Concert Chamber, Hamilton Violin Cadenza only
	04 May 2010	Performed by New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the New Zealand Chamber Soloists – Lara Hall, Edward King, Katherine Austin, as part of the 18th NZSO-SOUNZ Readings conducted by Tecwyn Evans at the Wellington Town Hall in Wellington
		New Zealand Chamber Soloists    New Zealand Symphony Orchestra    Tecwyn Evans

Awards

• NZSO-SOUNZ Readings (2010)
  

  Convergence by Michael Williams was performed at the NZSO-SOUNZ Readings in May 2010.