Paul Lewis
THREE VALENTINES for violin, strings and harp or piano
Goodmusic Concert Originals GMCO154
Level of Difficulty
Attributing a particular level of difficulty to an orchestral piece is awkward!
A piece may be easy for the strings but difficult for the brass; it may feature a tricky instrumental solo but the other parts may be relatively straight forward. A number of the arrangements listed are designed to simplify works to some extent but composers of many original works featured did not consider difficulty when writing them.
What our levels mean:
A = for players up to UK Grade 3
B = Grade 3 to 5
C = Grade 4 to 6
D = Grade 5 to 7
E = Grade 6 to 8
F = Grade 7 and over
Our gradings should be taken only as a rough guide.
To be sure if a piece is suitable for you, take a look at the score.
Orchestration: Solo Violin, Strings (Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, Cello, Bass), Harp or Piano[optional]
Three latter-day salon pieces: A Rapture of Roses; A Shimmer of Champagne; Rhapsody in Chocolate
The third of my Three Valentines, Rhapsody in Chocolate was composed in 2007, ever since when I had thought whimsically of writing two companion pieces to represent the other traditional Valentine's Day gifts, Champagne and roses, as an offering to the violin, an instrument I love and grew up with, since my mother, her brother and his wife were busy professional violinists.
The catalyst for the composing of the other movements came in the form of the brilliant virtuoso violinist Nazrin Rashidova, whose performance of my Rosa Mundi with her string orchestra FeMusa moved me like no other had.
Additionally, there were connections that struck a deep chord. Nazrin is of Azerbaijani origin and plays with a wonderful Eastern European sensitivity - my mother was half-Russian and also deeply passionate in her playing. Nazrin directs her own all-female orchestra, the first in Britain for sixty years, and my mother, in her twenties, also had her own all-female ensemble, Phyllis Burstein and Her Bohemian Girls Band, playing the kind of Eastern European gypsy music that was popular at the time.
There was obviously no choice: the two new pieces had to be written for Nazrin. Happily she not only enthusiastically accepted the dedication of Three Valentines and premiered them with pianist Daniel Grimwood at St. James's Church, Piccadilly, London, on August 9th 2017, but also commissioned me to arrange them for FeMusa, premiering them in this version in the Gabala International Music Festival, Azerbaijan, on August 1st 2017. Paul Lewis
A PACK includes a full score, strings 4/4/3/4/2 plus a harp part, a piano part and a solo violin part.
Duration about 9 minutes
Suggestions for bowing and fingering the solo violin part kindly supplied by Nazrin Rashidova
Also available:
THREE VALENTINES for violin & piano: Goodmusic GM204
Audio Sample
Click the play button below to hear a performance which has been computer-generated from the score.