Fire and Blood for solo violin and Orchestra by composer Michael Daugherty

Michael Daugherty

Michael Kevin Daugherty is an American composer, pianist, and teacher. Influenced by popular culture, Romanticism, and Postmodernism, Daugherty is one of the most colorful and widely performed American concert music composers of his generation...

 is a 25 minute concerto inspired by Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera

Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo . His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement in...

's Detroit Industry Murals and Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán, and perhaps best known for her self-portraits....

's paintings while in Detroit. It was commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its main performance center is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood...

 during Michael Daugherty's time as composer in residence (1999-2003).

Instrumentation

Solo violin; 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in Bb, 2 bassoons; 2 or 4 horns, 2 trumpets in C; 5 timpani, 2 percussion (I=marimba/glockenspiel/suspended cymbal/piccolo triangle/medium maracas/guiro/small brake drum/large whip; II=marimba/2 crotales/small tam-tam/triangle/large maracas/medium and large brake drums/ratchet); harp; strings

Premiere

The world premiere performance took place May 3, 2003, at Symphony Hall, Detroit, Michigan; with Ida Kavafian

Ida Kavafian

Ida Kavafian is a classical violinist and violist.Kavafian was born in Turkey to Armenian parents. She moved with her family to America in 1956, and began studying violin in Detroit at age six...

 on violin, accompanied by Detroit Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Neeme Jarvi

Neeme Järvi

Neeme Järvi is an Estonian-born conductor.-Early life:Järvi studied music first in Tallinn, and later in Leningrad at the Leningrad Conservatory under Yevgeny Mravinsky, and Nikolai Rabinovich, among others...

.

Discography

Naxos: Fire and Blood / MotorCity Triptych / Raise the Roof

Raise the Roof

Raise the Roof is a construction strategy card game for 2 to 4 players.The game is played by drawing cards in turn and playing them to build your house. Room cards used to build your house range in value from 100 to 400. You can stop other players from building their house, take parts from their...

(Kavafian, B. Jones, Detroit Symphony, N. Jarvi)