Manchester University: Psappha in Klas Torstensson's Violin Concerto

You're probably wondering why a violin concerto was given its UK première by the chamber ensemble Psappha? An informative programme note by Paul Griffiths for the 15 February concert revealed that Swedish composer Klas Torstensson (b. 1951) had in fact written a much longer, though still compactly scored, work in 2010 and had ‘squashed it down’ in length and further reduced the number of players. The work's full title is Pocket Size Violin Concerto – scored for soloist with unconducted accompaniment from piano, flute, and cello. Whilst compression of this kind is not uncommon in other branches of the arts, and concision is a noble artistic aim, one's fear was that such drastic pruning might have short-circuited the music's arguments. Happily this proved unfounded; and whilst the original half-hour's duration might have been pushing it a bit, the modified version (at a whisker under 17 minutes) seemed just about right.