The Blue Room Violin Concerto
Reena Esmail (b. 1983)

THE STORY

Reena Esmail’s The Blue Room began as a set of two sketches. Unrealized for several years, they were given full shape as a piece for conductor Robert Bolyard’s graduation recital at Yale in 2007. The first movement creates a dramatic soundscape with trembling string parts, twisting violin solo writing, and drone effects. This initial movement contains the original two sketches and is followed by a second movement which Esmail envisions as a response to those sketches, brimming with a nervous energy and timbral exploration.

The title of the work comes from a poem (“White Key”) by Carol Muske-Dukes—former Poet Laureate of California—that reads “...like the light on the bed / In the blue room where I last held you.” Esmail refers to the poem as “a poignant expression of love and loss” and later set the entire poem in a composition for a capella choir, White Key (2009). Esmail, who is Indian-American, is highly regarded for compositions that reference both Western and Hindustani classical music traditions. Her Violin Concerto draws the ear to contemplate the fusing of seemingly disparate musical cultures into an arresting and effective concert piece.

LISTEN FOR

• Subtle pitch inflections of the solo violin, particularly in the first movement opening and closing sections—such micro alterations in pitch are an essential element of Hindustani classical music
• The sustained tones of the first movement that pulsate throughout, enveloping the solo violin in a wash of sonic color
• The initial violin statement of the second movement—variations of this motive appear throughout the ensemble, often in dialogue with the violin

INSTRUMENTATION

Solo violin; piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, percussion, harp, strings