v. Lektor Lasse Lauersen
This article investigates how contemporary orchestral works by Clara Iannotta, Rebecca Saunders, and Olga Neuwirth reconfigure the concerto as a resilient yet negotiable institutional format. Rather than rejecting the concerto tradition, these composers mobilize it as a site of experimental friction, reshaping relations between soloist, orchestra, and audience. Through case studies of where the dark earth bends, Wound, and According to What?, the analysis focuses on four parameters: choice of soloist(s), use of soloist(s), treatment of the orchestra, and the relationship between soloist(s) and ensemble. The works replace conventional models of virtuosity and opposition with asymmetrical and porous configurations characterized by resonance, mismatch, and embodied performance. The article argues that these “expanded concertos” activate the structural inertia of the orchestra as an aesthetic resource, revealing the concerto as a durable framework for negotiating experimentation, infrastructure, and listening practice in contemporary orchestral music.