ABSTRACT
The Piano Concerto, like the Symphony nine years before it, was a BBC commission. Wood was asked originally for a Viola Concerto, but soon decided to write instead for his former Cambridge pupil Joanna MacGregor, who premiered the work on 10 September 1991 at the Proms. The Variations for Orchestra was written for the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Impetus came from Wood's familiarity with and affection for the performers, for whom he wrote a sort of mini-Concerto for Orchestra. This is readily apparent in the continual reshuffling and highlighting of different groups and sections within the orchestra over the course of the work. Fifty Chords for David Matthews, along with tributes by six other composers, was written for a concert celebrating David Matthew's fiftieth birthday (1993). Wood's contribution was simple: fifty piano chords, to which a string trio provides contrast.
