Theorbo Concerto (for theorbo and string quartet)

“The world’s first concerto for theorbo is unashamedly clever. Listen without the contextual notes and you experience a sensory whirlwind in which the theorbo is catapulted into the present, reinventing itself with a range of extended techniques and, under Matthew Wadsworth’s deft fingers, soloistic effects it never knew it was capable of. Between the Scottish Chamber orchestra’s tightly-executed themes that combine a whiff of Elgar and Shostakovich with bach and Blues, Wadsworth shimmers, jostles, and dances – holding his own in this new territory…”
Hannah French – BBC Music magazine – May 2019

References, evocations and stylistic interventions abound, from Baroque to blues and boogie-woogie. The effect is less pastiche than a coherent argument which marshals its musical elements like slightly eccentric proofs. As always, Wadsworth finds the greatest expressive potential in the smallest element without losing sight of the whole. He has the ideal collaborators in the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Benjamin Marquise Gilmore.
Gramophone, March 2019