The Concerto da Camera for Viola and Small Chamber Ensemble was written in the first weeks of March of 1996. However, the ideas for the concerto were conceived much earlier and date back to the summer of 1995. I have always had a fascination with the rich and multi-faceted sound of the viola and for a long time I wanted to write a solo concerto celebrating this instrument. The characteristic lower register possesses a dark-hued tone quality that lots of composers have successfully explored. The somewhat pinched quality of the higher and highest registers lend the tone an intensity that I find particularly suitable for my musical purposes.

For practical reasons two versions of the concerto currently exist. This edition of the concerto features the chamber version in which the viola is accompanied by a mixed ensemble of 7 instrumentalists including percussion. The other rendering uses chamber orchestra with complete string section and doubling of the winds. However, the musical material is basically the same.

The first movement, Appassionato, opens in recitativo-style. The ensemble introduces a static cluster over which the viola introduces several musical objects. Gradually the other instruments take up this material and the music evolves to a first climax. The viola then quickly leads into the second, arioso, part of the movement in which momentarily the roles are reversed. The viola accompanies a melody in the flute. After a while the other instruments and the viola start a delicate game of melodic exchange, continually developing the melodic material with ever increasing tension. The melodic lines get shorter and start modulating culminating in a climax reminiscent of the earlier one. The tension quickly dissolves repeating past musical material over a pedal-point in the lower strings.

The second movement, Trottola, assumes the function of a traditional scherzo in very fast duple meter. Less than three minutes long, the movement races by, as the title indicates, like a whirlwind dancing out its furious energy. A conscious tribute to Bartòk, the piece celebrates the viola's capacity for agility and compelling virtuosity.

The third movement, Aria Deviata, is indeed a song gone awry. Over a tonal background the viola introduces a cantilène that holds the promise of a rich development. Instead, the cantilène only evokes a chromatic and rather bleak answer, sparsely orchestrated, with a rhythmic self evidence that reflects a sad inevitability. The cantilène returns, this time in a far removed key. Again the enigmatic answer reappears and substitutes the melody's yearning for development.