Hoffer: Violin Concerto

Bernard Hoffer’s 2012 Violin Concerto begins with the unaccompanied violin announcing the work’s germinal motive: repeated staccato notes followed by a longer-held chord. Soon the soloist and his orchestral partners are tossing it back and forth in spirited interplay until, four minutes in, comes a big surprise: a brief but instantly recognizable phrase from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony! Suddenly we realize that although Hoffer’s concerto is the most un-Beethovenian music imaginable, filled with color, optimism, and geniality, it uses almost the same primal motive from which Beethoven built his taut, hard-driven masterpiece. Each time the motive reappears, as the concerto wends its way through songful reflection or high- spirited exuberance, it’s like meeting an old friend brimming over with good stories and merry companionship. Hoffer’s pristine, transparent scoring is another de- light. The violin vaults acrobatically over sharply-articulated brass chords, or muses above radiant harp arpeggios; distant horn fanfares reach out over Brittenesque string tremolos. That a man of 78 could write music so fresh, endearing, and salubrious seems a miracle. No wonder the performers respond to it with so much enthusiasm. Elmar Oliveira’s playing is richly sonorous, Dublin’s RTE orchestra superlative, and Artek’s sonics crisply detailed yet open, airy, and expansive.