Piano Concerto No. 3, op. 37

PAGANINI VARIATIONS – Piano Concerto No.3 (The original guitar-part arranged for piano and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott by the composer, 2014). In 1999 my friend, American guitar virtuoso David Starobin, wanted me to write a concerto for guitar and orchestra. It quickly dawned on me, that this commission presented a golden opportunity to contribute to the time-honoured tradition of composing a series of variations on Nicolo Paganini´s famous 24th Caprice for violin solo, a work which itself is a set of variations. The 16 bar (with the first 4 bars repeated) theme is not particularly sophisticated or intricate, but its inherent simplicity and logic just grow on you, almost to the point of distraction – and the secret behind it being hauled through “the wringer” by composers as disparate as Liszt, Brahms, Rachmaninoff and Lutoslawski is perhaps found in its - what I´ll call, with a quick nervous look over my shoulder: brilliant banality. You can do anything with that tune, it´ll always be recognizable and just there, however much you maul it.