Flute Concerto: Storm Within

Recording - To listen to the premiere, please email Vivian for access to a private recording.

Work Overview

Instrumentation (chamber orch): Oboe, Clarinet in Bb, Bassoon, Horn in F, Trumpet in C, Tenor Trombone, Timpani, Percussion (one player): Glockenspiel, Vibraphone (bow), Marimba, Tuned Gong, Bass Drum (bamboo sticks), Solo Flute, Strings
Full orchestra version - 0222-423-timp2perc-strings
Commission: Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Premiere of full orchestral version : Vancouver Symphony Orchestra with conductor Karen Kamensek and flutist Christie Reside, Nov. 11, 2022
The world premiere and commissioning of Vivian Fung’s Flute Concerto is dedicated to the memory of Hugh Davidson with thanks for the generous support of the Hugh Davidson Fund at the Victoria Foundation.
Duration: 20 minutes

Program Note

Flute Concerto “Storm Within” is a work in one continuous movement written during the fall and winter of 2020, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was raging and California (where I currently reside) was in full lockdown. As I sat in my studio, powerful images and stories filtered in from the daily news—protests, violence, death, resistance, and conflict from the many events happening around the world. It was all a bit overwhelming, and I frequently found it difficult to process all the emotions that emerged from witnessing these events unfolding on the screen. In an effort to understand and come to terms with often unresolved sentiments swirling in my head, I decided to put them all into the concerto. I knew from the start that I did not want the flute concerto to focus on the many themes that have already been brilliantly portrayed by composers before me, subjects such as birdsong and pied piper tales. But although the concerto accordingly touches on an angrier—and perhaps a more emotive—side of my writing, it also has many moments of beauty and solace.

The work starts and ends with lyrical and placid moments for both flute and orchestra, bookending a journey that is at times percussive and harsh, at times playful, and at times soaring with expressive lines for both flute and orchestral instruments. The concerto displays a mighty and highly virtuosic flute part, with a cadenza right before the final moments of the piece. The flute solo is laced with fast runs, glissandi, large leaps, and rhythmically charged lines. At times, the flutist is asked to speak as well as play, giving the instrument an additional percussive dimension. The writing is meant to test the limits of the flute, and I could not have asked for a better performer than Christie Reside, the principal flutist of the Vancouver Symphony, who also commissioned this work.