The London Philharmonic Orchestra opens its 2008-9 season with the world première of Mark-Anthony Turnage's violin concerto Mambo, Blues and Tarantella, written for Christian Tetzlaff.

Find out about the work in this recent interview with the composer.

Are there any musical characteristics that this Orchestra has that you’ve had in mind when writing a piece you know they’re going to perform?

Unlike some orchestras they can play rhythmically together. So you can write something that is fairly intricate rhythmically, and certainly propulsive – I mean, for instance, they can play Stravinsky really well, so I would probably write more tricky rhythms for them because I know they can do them. That’s just one aspect, but it’s an aspect that’s missing from quite a lot of orchestras. When I came back to work with them immediately after working with another orchestra I was amazed immediately at how tight the ensemble was.

I wonder if you’ve had that in mind with the Violin Concerto you’re writing for the Orchestra and Christian Tetzlaff, because from the title (Mambo, Blues and Tarantella) it seems like a rhythmic piece?

It is, particularly the last movement. Mambo is the last movement and Tarantella is the first movement, although I’m keeping it the other way around in the title. The last movement is actually quite Latin, and I wouldn’t risk that with some other orchestras.

Touching on the Tarantella, you’ve used a lot of jazz and popular dance forms in your music, but the tarantella has been used by composers for centuries hasn’t it?

If you look up the definition, it’s to do with tarantulas originally, but the idea is that the dancer would almost dance themselves to death, or not death so much as just get themselves very worked up, so it gets very manic. That’s the idea of the movement really, but there are different definitions, and different spellings too.

Your writing for voice and winds has such a distinctive and natural quality, I wondered if you’ve found writing for a solo string instrument difficult at all – particularly as the ‘Violin Concerto’ is so often the model by which composers are judged?

I actually find it much more difficult writing for voice than I do strings. Voice is actually really hard for me, and it doesn’t come naturally at all. But strings I have got more and more confident with. I’ve written a Viola Concerto which I wrote for Yuri Bashmet a while ago, which Laurence Power has done in England, and I’ve written for cello a lot, so I’m probably more comfortable with a lower-stringed instrument.  The big test for violin, is not just that it’s not the most natural string instrument for me, but also one of balance, because it’s a fairly large orchestra which makes it hard.

You often seem to write for people rather than instruments, in this case for violinist Christian Tetzlaff?

Over the years I’ve been asked by various people, and there’s some fantastic talent out there. I remember hearing Tetzlaff play Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto at the Proms, it was on telly, not even live, and I was just very struck by him as a player. It was very solid, very musical, and he also plays Bach beautifully – and not all players can do that. He plays on a modern violin which was interesting as well. I just thought he was amazing and even before I had a commission I thought, if I’m going to write a Violin Concerto then it’s going to be for him. And then funnily enough it’s been borne out by nearly everyone’s reaction; when I’ve said I’m writing for him they’ve said, ‘that’s incredible’.

I wanted to talk about titles, because your titles are often either descriptive, or evocative – disarmingly evocative even. They seem thought-about, pruned, and as finely formed as the works. At what stage in the compositional process do you think about titling?

Before; and quite often if there’s a problem with it then there’s a problem with the piece, so I have to have the title in order to write the piece. There was a slight problem with the Violin Concerto which went through a few titles, but I think Mambo, Blues and Tarantella was the right one in the end to describe the piece. I have been tempted…I almost called it ‘Violin Concerto’ which would have been a big departure for me. Maybe one day I’ll do that! I’m getting more abstract, more descriptive.

Mark-Anthony Turnage in conversation with Andrew Mellor, November 2007

Mamba, Blues and Tarantella is commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with support from the Michael Marks Charitable Trust, and by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

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